Tehran Friday prayer leader blasts human rights advocates for silence on ‎Zakzaky’s case

Hujjat al-Islam Kazem Seddiqi blasted the international bodies which claim support for human ‎rights for keeping mum about the dire situation of detained Nigerian cleric Shaykh Ibrahim ‎Zakzaky.

News ID: 447332

Date: 27 September 2019 - 20:53

RNA – Addressing a large and fervent congregation of people attending Friday prayers in ‎Tehran, Hujjat al-Islam Kazem Seddiqi said, “Hundreds of kilometers away in Nigeria, Shi’ah ‎Muslims are being continuously cracked down by the Nigerian government. We should pray ‎for Shi’ahs in Nigeria for whom void human rights bodies have done nothing.”‎

He slammed the silence shown by the international bodies on Shaykh Zakzaky’s case.‎

In relevant remarks in mid-August, a senior Iranian legislator blasted the international bodies ‎which claim support for human rights keeping mum about the dire situation of detained ‎Nigerian cleric Shaykh Ibrahim Zakzaky.‎

‎“I believe that the abject silence of the so-called advocates of human rights exposes their ‎fake nature,” Khadijeh Nobari said. ‎

She called on the Nigerian parliament to release Shaykh Zakzaky or account for its silence ‎before the Muslim world’s public opinion.‎

Nobari also said that nearly 1,000 Iranian physicians have declared preparedness to treat ‎Shaykh Zakzaky.‎

Shaykh Zakzaky, a prominent Shi’ah leader, has been in detention along with his wife for ‎close to four years despite the deterioration of his health conditions.‎

Earlier in August, Dr. Pourrahim Najafabadi, MD, said Shaykh Zakzaky needs to be cured by ‎an experienced medical team of physicians in a specialized multi-specialty hospital outside ‎Nigeria, since there is no such medical center in the African country.‎

‎“With the current physical condition of the Shaykh, especially the virulent lead poisoning, ‎Shaykh’s life is seriously at risk by delayed treatment. Meanwhile, there is a need for special ‎medical care even in case of complete medical treatment. There is serious risk to the ‎Shaykh’s life if he is kept under detention,” said Dr. Najafabadi, the founder and ‎spokesperson of a group of expert physicians who have volunteered to treat Shaykh ‎Zakzaky.‎

Also, in early August, a group of doctors from Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, ‎Lebanon and Iraq in a letter to the Nigerian government pointed to Shaykh Zakzaky’s ‎physical conditions, and asked the Nigerian government to transfer him to a well-equipped ‎hospital as soon as possible.‎

Finally, the Nigerian government allowed Zakzaky to be treated in India but the senior cleric ‎decided to return to Nigeria after being pressured in India.‎

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, in an official statement, rejected the claims spread by ‎state-sponsored media about the reason why Zakzaky cut his treatment visit to India short, ‎revealing that the decision was made after it was found that Abuja was planning to murder ‎the cleric in India.‎

Shaykh Zakzaky was, from the very beginning of his travel to India, bothered and pressed ‎by the hostile decision of the Nigerian government, according to a Friday statement signed ‎by Ibrahim Musa, the President of the Media Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria ‎‎(IMN).‎

The movement added in its statement that even upon returning from New Delhi, the top ‎cleric was denied a chance to talk to reporters and journalists who had been waiting for his ‎return at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport for hours.‎

The IMN condemned the move, and added that it was intended to prevent Shaykh from ‎revealing some realities about his difficulties in New Delhi, and to pave the way for spreading ‎disinformation against him.‎

According to the statement, upon arriving in New Delhi, Shaykh Zakzaky and his wife were ‎separated from the doctors who accompanied him from Nigeria and were forcibly taken to a ‎hospital which held no respect for the basic rights of patients.‎

Even a doctor who had flown from London to New Delhi was not allowed to meet with ‎Shaykh Zakzaky.‎

It asserted that Nigerian agents’ insistence on not allowing Shaykh Zakzaky to meet with his ‎doctors reassured the cleric and his wife that Abuja was planning to kill him in the Indian ‎hospital with the help of their connections and operatives in the place.‎

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