The leader of a prominent activist group that backs the ruling military, Abdoulaye Seydou, had a nine-month prison sentence overturned on Monday, according to his entourage.
In the coup late last month, members of Niger’s presidential guard took control of the government, and removed president Mohammed Bazoum.
In a case involving an army air strike on suspected jihadists in the south of the country, Seydou, leader of the M62 organisation, was imprisoned for seven months.
“The Niamey Court of Appeal has cancelled the decision of the High Court… which had sentenced our comrade Abdoulaye Seydou to nine months in prison,” said M62 secretary general Sanoussi Mahaman.
“We have always said that Abdoulaye Seydou’s detention is an arbitrary decision… orchestrated from start to finish”.
The M62 movement, founded a year ago, is a collaboration of roughly ten groups and non-governmental organisations opposed to the presence of French military forces in Niger.
