{"id":63328,"date":"2018-08-03T07:25:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T06:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=63328"},"modified":"2018-08-03T07:25:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T06:25:14","slug":"jones-abiri-finally-in-court-nigeria-must-release-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/jones-abiri-finally-in-court-nigeria-must-release-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Jones Abiri finally in court; Nigeria must release him"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">New York, August 2, 2018&#8211;Nigerian authorities should release without<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">delay Jones Abiri, publisher and editor in chief of the Weekly Source<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">newspaper, and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Journalists said today.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Nigeria&#8217;s state security service, known as the DSS, arrested Abiri on July<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">21, 2016, and has imprisoned him since.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Abiri today appeared in an Abuja magistrate&#8217;s court, his second court<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">appearance in a week after two years without trial or family visitation,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">according to CPJ research. He was arraigned on July 27, according to Femi<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Falana, the head of the legal office representing Abiri, and Chikezie<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Omeje, who covered today&#8217;s hearing for the non-profit International Centre<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">For Investigative Reporting (ICIR) news agency.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Abiri was charged at the first hearing with sending text messages to two<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">oil companies, Shell and Agip, allegedly demanding payments, according to<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">the same sources. CPJ was unable to determine more details of the charges.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">A lawyer for the DSS, Jamilu Hamisu, told today&#8217;s hearing that the DSS<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">witnesses were unable to attend because they were out of the country,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">according to Omeje.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Jones Abiri should never have been arrested and his over two years being<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">held without due process is an outrageous injustice that should be ended<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">without further delay,&#8221; Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program coordinator,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">said today from Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Nigeria must hold accountable those responsible for Abiri&#8217;s detention,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">including the security service, and send a message that such flagrant<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">abuses against journalists and press freedom will not be tolerated.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The DSS operates under Nigeria&#8217;s coordinator of national security, which<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">reports directly to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, according to<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Nigeria&#8217;s 1986 National Security Agencies Act.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">CPJ&#8217;s repeated calls to Lawal Daura, DSS Director General, Lai Mohammed,<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">minister of information and culture, and Garba Shehu, presidential<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">spokesperson, went unanswered.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Following the hearing, Abiri was moved from the DSS detention in Abuja to<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">a general prison facility in Keffi, located in Nasarawa state, according<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">to Omeje and an article in the news website Premium Times.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Falana told CPJ that during the July 27 arraignment, bail was set at 2<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">million naira (US$5,555) and required that two high level civil servants<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">serve as guarantors.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">During today&#8217;s court proceedings, Abiri&#8217;s counsel Marshall Abubakar<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">petitioned to have the bail conditions revised, according to the same ICIR<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">report. After the prosecutor appealed, the magistrate set August 8 as the<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">date to decide if bail conditions would be revised, and adjourned the case<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">until August 16, Omeje told CPJ.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">On July 3, Falana filed a 200 million Naira (US$555,555) lawsuit against<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">the DSS in federal high court on Abiri&#8217;s behalf, accusing the DSS of<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">violating the journalist&#8217;s fundamental rights, Falana said. CPJ was unable<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">to determine if a hearing date had been set for the lawsuit.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York, August 2, 2018&#8211;Nigerian authorities should release without delay Jones Abiri, publisher and editor in chief of the Weekly Source newspaper, and drop all charges against him, the Committee&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jones Abiri finally in court; 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