NGOs demand the release of 26 activists in Niger

NIAMEY: Ten international NGOs including Amnesty International and Oxfam called on Friday for the release of 26 civil society activists detained since March after a banned demonstration in Niamey.

A joint statement published on Oxfam’s website called on "the authorities in Niger to ease the situation by releasing the detainees and bring an end to the prosecutions". The majority of the 26 detainees, including three leaders of civil society organisations, were arrested on 25 March after banned clashes in Niamey between police and protesters, who say new taxes are "antisocial".

On May 11, their lawyers denounced the slowness in the judicial process and said that they had filed with the prosecutor a complaint over the "arbitrary detention" of their clients. All the defendants were eventually heard between 14 and 17 May by an investigating judge in the presence of lawyers.