South Africa’s Constitutional Court has opened the door for Henry Okah, the jailed leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to submit fresh legal appeals challenging his conviction and imprisonment.

Okah, sentenced in 2013 to 24 years in prison for his role in the 2010 Abuja Independence Day bombings, has consistently denied involvement, arguing that his trial was politically motivated. His latest legal push follows a ruling by South Africa’s Judicial Conduct Committee, which authorized an inquiry into his claims of judicial interference in his case.

On February 18, the Constitutional Court dismissed Okah’s bid to overturn previous rulings but upheld his right to challenge the legality of his detention. His legal team contends that South African authorities failed to comply with Section 15 of the nation’s anti-terrorism law, which governs extraterritorial jurisdiction, making his prosecution unlawful.

Okah has alleged that the former Chief Justice of South Africa, Raymond Zondo, manipulated court documents to undermine his legal efforts.

The Judicial Conduct Committee acknowledged the claims and approved an inquiry into the allegations. Okah’s legal team stated, “Given the ruling of the Judicial Conduct Committee, a Coram of the court’s justices disregarded Okah’s grounds for seeking the rescission of both prior orders. Granting those would have implied acceptance of his allegations against Chief Justice Zondo as fact without conducting an inquiry as directed by the Judicial Conduct Committee.”

Okah was arrested in South Africa after the October 1, 2010, bombings in Abuja, which left several dead. MEND, a militant group advocating for the rights of oil-producing communities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, claimed responsibility for the attack. At the time, Okah was residing in South Africa, which prosecuted him under its anti-terrorism laws, allowing foreign nationals to be tried for crimes committed beyond its borders.

His legal representatives argue that his conviction was influenced by political and economic factors tied to Nigeria’s oil industry. They assert, “Okah’s legal position is that the order of the Constitutional Court in S v Okah [2018] ZACC 3, on which basis he is detained, is a nullity because the South African state had omitted to comply with Section 15 of South Africa’s domestic anti-terrorism law.”

The ruling gives Okah the opportunity to submit new applications contesting the legitimacy of his imprisonment.