Niger's exiled Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou said the military junta has no right to prosecute the country's deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, and called for constitutional order to be restored through negotiations in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 and sister radio station RFI.
Bazoum, Niger's democratically elected leader, was ousted by members of the presidential guard on July 26. He has since been under house arrest with his wife and son in the presidential compound in the capital, Niamey.
Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou, a close ally of Bazoum, said the deposed president was being "held hostage" by the military junta that has seized power in the impoverished West African nation.
Speaking from neighbouring Nigeria, where he sought refuge in the wake of the coup, Massoudou condemned the putschists' announcement on Monday that they would prosecute Bazoum for treason, saying the junta had "no legitimacy to try anyone".
"These people who carried out this coup, this corrupt act we’re witnessing ... they cannot pretend to have the moral status to put anyone on trial," Massoudou said.
The junta has faced international pressure to release and reinstate Niger's president. Immediately after the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the regime seven days to return him to power and threatened to use military force if that did not happen. The deadline came and went with no action from either side.
A military intervention is "on the ECOWAS agenda ... but can still be avoided", Massaoudou said, calling for a negotiated solution to the stand-off.
