Elh Mahamane Ilia Dan MALAM, known as Sadat, a member of TLP-Niger, was summoned by the Zinder police after denouncing in the media the ban on demonstrations for civil society and not for political parties - ‘if there is insecurity, it's for everyone’. Kadri May DAWA, president of the Zinder branch of the PNDS-Tarayya, had filed a complaint against him for insult in the press, an offence that has been decriminalised since 2011. Knowing this, prosecutor Chaibou MOUSSA then reclassified the complaint as a ‘plot against State security with a call for an insurrectionary movement’, becoming the complainant himself. On 6 May 2018, he was sent far from his family to Matameye prison (85km from Zinder), where he would remain until 20 November 2019, more than 19 months without trial, although the maximum period of pre-trial detention in Niger is 12 months. Sadat was released on a technicality, but the prosecutor lodged an appeal in cassation on 21 November 2019. Since then, the proceedings have been ongoing and the charges continue to weigh on him. On 23 September 2019, Sadat's lawyer sent an application to the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to bring a complaint against the State of Niger for human rights violations and to request his client's release and fair compensation for the harm suffered. On 22 June 2021, the Court ordered the State of Niger ‘in view of the seriousness of the rights violated and their consequences for the applicant, [to pay Sadat], by way of compensation for the non-material damage he has suffered, the sum of 50,000,000 (fifty million) CFA francs’ (approximately €75,000).