Al Jazeera filed a case at a court in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to free two of its journalists detained by the military more than a week ago in a northeastern city.
The detention of Ahmed Idris and Ali Mustapha since March 24 is “illegal and unconstitutional” and violates their “fundamental rights to personal liberty and human dignity” as they were denied access to their phones and contact with the outside world, the Qatar-based broadcaster said Friday in an e-mailed statement.
Chris Olukolade, Nigeria’s defense spokesman, didn’t answer two calls made to his mobile phone. The journalists were “restrained to their hotel” in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, the military said in a statement published on its website dated March 25.
Borno is one of the regions hardest hit by the Boko Haram insurgency as the militant group seeks to impose Islamic law, or Shariah, in Africa’s most populous nation. The militants have killed more than 13,000 people in a six-year uprising, according to government estimates.