A Nigerian court found separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu guilty of terrorism and other charges after a decade of dramatic litigation.
He was sentenced to four life sentences with other terms to be served concurrently. Prosecutors had called for the death penalty, but Judge James Omotosho said executions were now frowned upon.
In his ruling, he said he was satisfied that Kanu had made a series of broadcasts to incite violence and killings as part of a campaign for a separate state in southeastern Nigeria, known as Biafra.
Kanu was found guilty on all seven charges he faced, as well as the terrorism charge. This included treason and involvement in illegal movements.
Kanu has always denied the charges and contested the court’s jurisdiction over him. When the trial began, he fired his lawyer but refused to represent himself.
Security was strengthened around the court in Abuja, the capital, ahead of the ruling in preparation for protests by Kanu’s supporters.
Once a relative unknown, he rose to national prominence in 2009 when he launched Radio Biafra, a station calling for an independent state for the Igbo people. The station broadcast from London to Nigeria.
Kanu grew up in southeastern Nigeria, where he attended the University of Nsukka, but moved to the UK before graduating and took up British nationality.
In 2014, he founded the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a movement demanding independence.
Ipob was banned as a terrorist organization in 2017. Ipob’s armed group, the Eastern Security Network, has been accused of murders and other acts of violence in recent years.
“Mr Kanu knew what he was doing and was bent on carrying out these threats without regard for his own people,” Justice Omotosho said in his ruling.
“The incontrovertible evidence clearly shows that the defendant committed acts of terrorist preparation.
“He had a duty to explain himself and he failed to do so.”
Kanu is a popular figure in southeastern Nigeria, the heart of his movement, but reaction to the verdict there has so far been muted.
In court ahead of sentencing, Kanu had not yet submitted a final written address, accusing the judge of bias and arguing he could not continue the case because he did not understand the law.
The ruling was handed down after Kanu was forced to leave the courtroom for disorderly behavior.
He was first arrested in October 2015, but was granted bail in 2017 and left the country after a military raid on his home. The court later revoked his bail in March 2019..
Two years later, the government announced that he had been arrested again. His lawyers said he was detained in Kenya and forcibly returned to Nigeria. Kenya did not comment.
In 2022, an appeals court ordered the charges against him to be dropped, saying he had been illegally arrested overseas, but the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court the following year.
The call for Biafran independence goes back many years.
In 1967, Igbo leaders declared the state of Biafran, but the separatist rebellion was defeated after a brutal civil war that left up to a million people dead.
Many Igbo people continue to feel they are marginalized by the Nigerian state, but it is unclear how many support independence.
Additional reporting from Ebere Ekeopara, BBC Igbo in Enugu
