A court in Niger has freed 15 civilians that were accused of complicity following an attempted coup against President Mahamadou Issoufou in 2015, their lawyer said on Saturday.
The Nigerian government in December 2015 said it had foiled the attempted putsch and arrested suspects who it believed had planned to use aerial firepower to seize control of the West African country, a major Uranium producer.
The fifteen were freed on Friday.
Nine other military officers including the alleged ringleader General Salou Souleymane, are still behind bars awaiting trial.
“From the start we were convinced our clients are innocent,” lawyer Ali Kadri said on private local TV station Bonferey. “There was no (evidence) … to suggest that they were implicated in this affair,” he said.
Issoufou was elected in 2011, one year after a coup. He was re-elected in February last year with 92.5 percent of the vote after the opposition coalition boycotted the polls.
