A Major Victory for Justice in Nigeria

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

© Benedicte Kurzen/NOOR for the Open Society Foundations
In 2005, 16 freshly minted Nigerian lawyers tried something new: they began offering free legal advice to suspects within 48 hours of their arrest. There was little doubt that their services were needed; more than two-thirds of the country’s prison population is simply waiting for a trial, a process that sometimes takes years. In the time since, an expanded version of their initiative has saved some 15,000 suspects from needless pretrial detention, and Nigeria’s most senior police officer has embraced it and made it standard policy. As great as the work of the past 12 years has been, the future looks even better.

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