The family of a man who died in police custody in Nigeria during an Islamist uprising last year has welcomed a court ruling against the police.
The court in Borno State said Baba Fugu Mohommed’s killing was “brutal” and compared it to the Spanish Inquisition.
The judge said he had been killed simply because he was the father-in-law of Mohammed Yusuf, the leader the Boko Haram sect behind the violence.
Mr Yusuf was also killed after the July clashes, allegedly in police custody.
Human rights groups have frequently accused Nigeria’s police of extra-judicial killings, but they are rarely brought to justice.
Compensation
Boko Haram supporters attacked a police station in the northern city of Maiduguri in July 2009, leading to days of clashes and hundreds of deaths – mostly sect members.
Mr Fugu Mohommed was detained by police in Borno State during the crisis.
His son told the BBC’s Hausa Service that the family was satisfied with the outcome of the case as the police had been ordered to pay them compensation of about $665,000 (£430,000).
The court also ordered the police to apologise and exhume the body so it could be buried properly.
The death of Mr Yusuf after the suppression of the uprising has also been controversial.
Police say he was killed in a shoot-out when he tried to escape, but rights groups have said it was also a summary execution.
The Boko Haram supporters said they were fighting against Western education and believed Nigeria’s government was being corrupted by Western ideas.
The sect wanted to see Islamic law imposed across the country.