Niger's toppled president takes legal action

Niamey [Niger], September 22: Mohamed Bazoum, Niger's former president who was overthrown by the military, is taking the coup plotters to court.
Bazoum, his wife and son filed a complaint with the court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for deprivation of liberty and violation of the constitution, Bazoum's lawyer Mohamed SeydouDiagne told DPA on Thursday.
Niger's judicial authority published a letter from the court, based in neighbouring Nigeria, ordering the state to respond within a month to the complaint received on Monday.
The three have been held at the presidential palace in Niger's capital Niamey since the July 26 coup. The head of the presidential guard, AbdourahamaneTchiani, seized power with other military officers and declared himself interim president.
According to the lawyer, the junta has ordered that Bazoum and his family receive fresh food and a visit from their doctor only once a week instead of daily following the lawsuit. The family still has no electricity after it was cut during the coup.
ECOWAS had threatened military intervention if the democratically elected Bazoum was not reinstated and constitutional order restored.
Niger, with about 26 million inhabitants and one of the poorest populations in the world, was previously an important strategic partner of the United States and Europe in the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara.
Several neighbouring states are also ruled by the military after coups.
S1ource: Qatar Tribune