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A Nigerian court marshal has sentenced 25 wounded soldiers to terms of imprisonment, including life, for mutiny, news organizations reported on Sunday.
The soldiers were charged with “mutiny” and “disobedience” after protesting the alleged lack of adequate medical care at a Cairo hospital, in Egypt. They had also demanded special allowances while out of Nigeria. However, the army has said the soldiers are not entitled to any of these payments because they are strictly for personnel on foreign military training courses.
The soldiers, who were wounded in peacekeeping duties with ECOMOG in Sierra Leone, where flown to Egypt for advanced medical care.
Human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi, whose law firm appeared for the defendants, was quoted as describing the judgment as “perverse, unfair and unreasonable” and said he would challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
