James Agberebi
Wife of Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive detained by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Yuki Gambaryan, has called for the release of her husband after he slumped inside the Federal High Court Abuja on Thursday.
The incident occurred during the foreign exchange contravention and money laundering trial instituted against Gambaryan by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The trial began last Friday after the judge declined Gambaryan’s bail request, but when the matter was called by the court registrar on Thursday, a lawyer aided Gambaryan to the dock where he collapsed.
Lawyer to Gambaryan Mark Mordi (SAN) called for an adjournment so that his client would get proper medical attention.
Counsel for the EFCC, Ekele Iheanacho, did not oppose the call for an adjournment.
The court directed the prison service to take Gambaryan to a medical hospital for treatment and fixed June 20 and 21 for cross-examination and trial.
Reacting to the collapse of her husband, Gambaryan’s wife, Yuki, in a statement maintained that the former U.S. federal agent is detained in Nigeria unjustly, urging the government to let her ailing husband go.
“Yesterday, despite numerous signs of severe illness, my husband was still required to appear in court, where he later collapsed,” she said in the statement. “The conditions in the notorious Kuje prison are, in a word, devastating. My husband is a strong, healthy person, but he is facing an environment that would bring even the strongest among us to our knees.
“For nearly three months now, Tigran has faced unimaginable stress at the hands of an unjust detention, a sense of loss for being separated from everyone he knows and loves, and now a serious illness which is not, in my opinion, getting the medical attention it deserves.
“I am calling, yet again, for his immediate release. This punitive punishment against Tigran in an effort to target his employer has gone on long enough. My husband is sick, he needs help. Please, show some sense of humanity.”
The Nigerian government had accused Binance and its executives, Tygran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, (at large) of allegedly conspiring amongst themselves to conceal the origin of the financial proceeds of their alleged unlawful activities in Nigeria, including $35,400, 000.
