read the report - Amnesty International

NIGERIA
‘WAITING FOR THE HANGMAN’
15
3/THE JUDICIAL PROCESS:
‘NOT FAIR TO THE POOR’
‘Justice is just for rich men’
Death row inmate, Maximum Security Prison, Lagos 32
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
Usman was 23 when he was arrested in 1996 for robbery. He said he was tortured but did
not confess. Of his eight co-defendants, five were released. Usman was arraigned in 1998,
yet it took almost 10 years for the trial to be concluded. He was sentenced to death in July
2007. His appeal is pending. 33
All too often Nigerian prisoners wait years for their trial to be concluded. In its report Prisoners’
rights systematically flouted, published in February 2008, Amnesty International found that
most inmates wait two, three or four years, and some more than seven, with no idea how long
they will be held. The trials of most of the inmates interviewed by Amnesty International had
started, but often there was no progress in their case. 34 Approximately four out of 10 men on
death row waited for more than five years to be tried. Many waited six, seven or eight years.
One man, who was arrested in 1991, spent 16 years in prison before he was sentenced to
death in 2007. 35
Brothers John (50) and Kingsley (47) spent more than half of their life in prison. They were
arrested in 1983 on suspicion of murder and waited 13 years for their trial to be concluded.
On 20 June 1996 they were sentenced to death. They have no lawyer and never filed an
appeal. They have been in Enugu prison for 25 years. 36
Index: AFR 44/020/2008 Amnesty International October 2008