Hezbollah: Court reserves judgment on N50bn suit against FG. The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, Monday, reserved its judgment in the N50billion suit that was slammed against the federal government by three Lebanese accused of complicity in the illegal importation of arms into Nigeria. The plaintiffs, Mustapha Roda Darwish Fawaz, Talal Roda, and Abdulla Tahini, accused of belonging to the military wing of a Lebanon based terrorist organization, Hezbollah, had in the fundamental right enforcement application they filed before the court, faulted their continued detention in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS. Justice Adeniyi Ademola adjourned the case for judgment after the plaintiffs, through their lead counsel, Mr Robert Clarke, SAN, adduced points of law which he said the court ought to consider and penalize the federal government for not only infringing on the fundamental rights of his clients, but for equally preferring an incompetent charge against them. While urging the court to discountenance the preliminary objection that was entered against the suit by the Nigerian government, Clark, SAN, contended that the earlier arraignment of his clients before an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court at Karu, which he said lacked the jurisdiction to try terrorism matters, amounted to a deliberate ploy to abridge the plaintiffs right to freedom of movement. He noted that it was on the basis of a 2-count charge contained in the earlier dismissed First Information Report, FIR, the government filed against the three Lebanese, that the Magistrate Court issued an order for their remand. According to him, having dismissed that charge, his clients ought to have been released pending when they are formally arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction. Besides, Clarke, faulted the closure of businesses owned by the detainees, even as he urged the high court to not only award N50bn damages to his clients, but to compel the federal government to apologize to them via at least three national dailies. Meantime, the federal government had on June 20, filed fresh six-count terrorism charge against the applicants, just as it sought the dismissal of their suit on the premise that it is grossly lacking in merit. At the resumed hearing on the matter last Friday, the plaintiffs had denied that they are terrorist, insisting that Hezbollah is a political party in Lebanon.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 18:55:03 +0000
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