Niger opposition leader Hama Amadou freed on bail
Xinhua, March 30, 2016 Adjust font size:
Niger opposition leader Hama Amadou who had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a child trafficking racket, was on Tuesday freed on bail by the country's Court of Appeal.
The decision came after his lawyers filed a case requesting for his provisional release on humanitarian grounds.
Amadou who lost in the recent presidential run-off poll to incumbent President Issoufou Mahamadou, was evacuated on the eve of the elections to France for medical reasons from Filingue prison, some 180 km from Niamey, where he had been detained for four months.
It would be recalled that about 30 people were targeted in the child trafficking scandal. They included Amadou and his wife, ex-minister of state Abdou Labo and his wife as well as many other senior Nigerien personalities.
All these individuals, with the exception of Amadou who had fled to France, were detained last June in Niamey over the suspected crime, and their bail plea has been denied.
Amadou who had fled to France in August 2015, was arrested upon his return on November 14 and detained at Filingue prison.
The main opponent of Issoufou, Amadou has always claimed that the charges leveled against him were political, and that the government wanted to bar him from contesting in the 2016 presidential elections. Enditem