Jailed Comoros opposition leader on hunger strike

By : AFP

Date: 24 January 2025 2:30pm WAT

Opposition supporters barricade a road during a demonstration in Moroni on January 17, 2024 following the announcement of the presidential elections. - Azali Assoumani won re-election on January 16, 2024 in the first round of an already disputed presidential vote in the Comoros, an Indian Ocean island chain, dismissing a low turnout and allegations of fraud. The January 14, 2024 poll was tainted by opposition claims of ballot rigging and voter apathy, but the head of the electoral commission Idrissa Said Ben Ahmada on Tuesday announced Assoumani had won 62.97 percent of the vote. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)

A 2019 Comoros presidential runner is on the fifth day of a hunger strike to push for his trial or release after over a year in detention on conspiracy charges, his lawyer said Friday.

Supporters of Achmet Said Mohamed say the 48-year-old academic was picked up days before the January 14, 2024 presidential election. He had wanted to contest but the courts rejected his candidacy.

The leader of the Hury or “Freedom” movement, wants “either a trial, or his release, or to let nature do its work,” lawyer Djamal El-dine Bacar told AFP.

Achmet was later officially charged with “acts of attack and conspiracy against the authority of the state and for attempted terrorist acts,” the lawyer said.

“My client has been on a drip since yesterday and can hardly stand up. I have had no news from the judiciary or the National Human Rights Commission,” he said.

National Security Minister Fakridine Mahamoud declined to give details, telling AFP: “I’m currently out of the country and I’m not very familiar with his case.”

Achmet took about two per cent of votes in the 2019 presidential election, won by Azali Assoumani who was reelected in January 2024 in a vote that opposition challengers alleged was irregular.

Achmet left the Comoros for France soon after the 2019 election and returned in 2023.

He announced his hunger strike in a letter dated January 20 that points to regulations allowing four months of provisional detention that can be renewed only once.