The Federal High Court in Abuja has commenced a trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness or otherwise of the statements made by five terror suspects linked to the 2011 bombing of the United Nations House in Abuja.
More than 20 Nigerians working at the UN Building lost their
lives and over 70 others were injured during the bomb attack.
Following their arrest, the five suspects linked to the
terrorism attacks made statements to operatives of the Department of the State
Service DSS on their individual roles in the terror attacks.
However, at the commencement of their trial, the suspects
alleged that their statements were made under duress, coercion and
intimidation, prompting the trial judge, Emeka Nwite, to order trial-within-
trial for the purpose of establishing the genuineness of allegations by the
suspects.
At the resumed proceedings, counsel representing both the
prosecution and the defense confirmed that they had jointly reviewed video
recordings of the defendants’ interrogations in the presence of court
officials.
The Department of State Services, DSS, also told the court
that masked witnesses would testify during the trial-within-trial to address
the defendants’ allegations of coercion in obtaining their statements.
The development followed an earlier ruling by Justice Emeka
Nwite, granting the DSS’s request for an accelerated trial in the long-standing
terrorism case.
The trial involves Khalid Al-Barnawi, alleged mastermind of
the August 26, 2011 UN building bombing, which killed over 20 people and
injured more than 70 others.
Al-Barnawi, arrested in 2016 in Lokoja, Kogi State by the
DSS, is accused of leading a faction of the Boko Haram group known as Ansaru.
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