Alleged terrorism: Court begins secret trial of two Nigerians

[Mirror]

A federal high court sitting in Abuja is scheduled to commence trial-within-trial proceedings in the charge by the Federal Government against two suspected Nigerian members of an Iranian terrorist organisation. The accused are Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and Saheed Adewumi.

The decision of the court to engage in trial-within-trial proceedings followed the open denial of the suspects of authorship of confessional statements allegedly volunteered by them on the matter.

The terror suspects are standing trial on a sixcount charge for their alleged involvement in terrorism offences between 2011 and 2012 in the Middle East and Lagos. They both pleaded "not guilty" to the charge and thereby applied for bail.

The Federal Government had claimed that Abdullahi Mustapha Berende, between September 2011 and December 2012, in Tehran, Iran, had supported terrorism acts, involved in training on use of dangerous weapons and fire arms with the intent of perpetrating terrorism crimes in Nigeria.

The offence it was learnt ran contrary to Section 5 (1) (a) of Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 and punishable under Section 5 (1) of same Act. In count two, the Federal Government alleged that Abdullahi, while in Iran, had information to commit terrorism acts, but concealed such information from security operatives, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8 (1) of the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 as amended.

Source: Alleged terrorism: Court begins secret trial of two Nigerians