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Nigeria Secures 386 Terrorism Convictions in Four-Day Special Court Sessions

The rulings signal a faster push to move long‑held insurgency suspects through the courts.

FILE - Members of the Nigerian army provide security during an event in Minna, Nigeria, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File)

Overview

  • Nigeria’s attorney general said Friday that courts secured 386 convictions from 508 cases after four days of mass hearings in Abuja.
  • Sentences ranged from five years to life, including 40 to 60 years for 11 defendants under the terrorism law.
  • Many suspects pleaded guilty or gave confessional statements, which judges accepted as sufficient for conviction without full prosecution evidence in hearings observed by international monitors.
  • Judges ordered rehabilitation and deradicalization for those convicted, with the next phase of the mass trials planned by late May.
  • A judge issued a retroactive nine-year sentence that led to the immediate release of one detainee who had already spent more than a decade in custody.