Niger: Joint call for the immediate release of Moussa Tiangari

15/01/2025
Statement
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AEC

We demand the immediate release of Moussa Tiangari, rights defender and General Secretary of the Alternative Espaces Citoyens (AEC) association, who was imprisoned on 3 January 2025 after a month in police custody.

15 January 2025.

Moussa Tiangari was arrested at his home on 3 December 2024 on his return from an international trip. Charged with undermining state security, criminal conspiracy in connection with terrorism and glorifying terrorism, he spent a month in police custody before being presented to the senior examining magistrate in Niamey on 3 January 2025. The doyen decided to imprison him in the Filingué prison, taking him almost 200 kilometres away from Niamey and adding two extremely serious charges to his file: undermining national defence and conspiring with enemy powers. Moussa Tiangari faces life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

We, the signatory human rights organisations, and those close to him, emphasise the absence of proof or evidence of the facts of which he is accused and express our great concern and indignation at his arbitrary arrest, indictment and imprisonment.

We recall that Moussa Tiangari has been an important figure in Nigerien civil society for decades, and an upright activist working in favour of human rights, particularly those of migrants. We reiterate our call for his immediate release and warn of the increasing repression affecting civil society in Niger and the relentless intimidation to which human rights defenders are subjected. Finally, we recall that attacks on human rights and solidarity, but also on public debate, are increasingly frequent in Niger and internationally.

As civil society actors, we will continue to fight for the defence of the rights of all, so that migration and solidarity are no longer criminalised in Niger and elsewhere, and so that Moussa Tiangari finally regains his freedom.

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  • Co-signatories

    1. ACAT-France
    2. AEC - Alternative Espaces Citoyens
    3. AMDH - Association Marocaine des Droits Humains
    4. Anafé - Association nationale d’assistance aux frontières pour les personnes étrangères
    5. APDHA - Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía
    6. ARACEM
    7. ARCI
    8. Asociación ELIN
    9. CNCD-11.11.11
    10. Collectif Loujna-Tounkaranké
    11. CRID
    12. Emmaüs Europe
    13. Emmaüs International
    14. Emmaüs Roya
    15. Fédération internationale pour les droits humains (FIDH), dans le cadre de l’Observatoire pour la Protection des Défenseurs des Droits Humains
    16. FTCR - Pour une citoyenneté des deux rives
    17. FTDES
    18. La Cimade
    19. Ligue des Droits de l’Homme
    20. Migreurop
    21. MRAP - Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples
    22. Organisation mondiale contre la torture (OMCT), dans le cadre de l’Observatoire pour la Protection des Défenseurs des Droits Humains
    23. Red Acoge
    24. Statewatch

  • Member organisations - Niger
    Niger

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