Abuja, Nigeria: In a significant judicial development, the Federal High Court in Abuja has approved the Department of State Services‘ (DSS) request for an accelerated trial of Khalid Al-Barnawi—alleged mastermind of the 2011 UN Building bombing—and four co-defendants.
Justice Emeka Nwite granted the request after the DSS lawyer, Alex Iziyon, SAN, moved the application on the ground that the service is prepared to ensure that the case is determined expeditiously.
In the application, which the respective defendants’ counsel did not oppose, parties would be allowed to watch video recordings presented by the DSS to prove that the extrajudicial statements given by the suspects were made voluntarily, as against the claim of some of the defendants.
It was agreed that the video clips would be played in the presence of the court registrar, and parties would take notes, after which they would return to the court on the next adjourned date.
Justice Nwite then adjourned the matter until Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.
The DSS had, in April 2016, arrested Al-Barnawi in Lokoja in Kogi, five years after the attack on the Abuja UN Building.
The attack, the first of its kind in Nigeria on an international organisation, left over 20 people dead and over 70 others injured.
However, several legal and administrative issues had stalled Al-Barnawi’s trial, which began shortly after his arrest in 2016.
Al-Barnawi is being prosecuted on terrorism related charges along with other suspected members of his group.
Other co-defendants include Mohammed Bashir Saleh; Umar Mohammed Bello, a.k.a Datti; Mohammed Salisu and Yakubu Nuhu, a.k.a Bello Maishayi.
They are among others, accused of being members of the Ansaru terrorist group, also known as Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan.
The defendants are also alleged to have conspired among themselves to carry out acts of terrorism between 2011 and 2013 in Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe and other states in the northern part of the country.
The U.S. had, in 2012, placed a $5 million (£3.5m) bounty on Al-Barnawi’s head after branding him one of three Nigerian “specially designated global terrorists.”
Ansaru is said to be ideologically aligned with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and is also accused of killing several Westerners.
Ansaru was reported to have claimed that it carried out an attack on a maximum security prison in Abuja in 2012, during which dozens of inmates were freed.
