The United Nations human rights chief has said there was no legal basis for Niger's military junta to prosecute deposed president Mohamed Bazoum for high treason, saying the "very notion of freedoms" in the country was at stake.
The military junta, which seized power in a coup last month, said it would prosecute Mr Bazoum for high treason over his exchanges with foreign heads of state and international organisations, prompting condemnation from the United States and west African leaders.
"This decision is not only politically motivated against a democratically elected president but has no legal basis as the normal functioning of democratic institutions has been cast aside," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
"The very notion of freedoms in Niger is at stake," he said.
"Generals cannot take it upon themselves to defy - at a whim - the will of the people. Rule-by-gun has no place in today's world."
The coup leaders have imprisoned Mr Bazoum and dissolved the elected government of Niger, a major uranium producer and Western ally in the fight against an Islamist insurgency.
Mr Turk, who called for Bazoum's immediate release, said the Niger coup, the sixth in the region in the past three years, was deeply troubling.
ECOWAS, the West African bloc, has concluded talks in Ghana as they prepare for a possible military intervention.
Yesterday a senior official told army chiefs they stand ready for to intervene if diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup fail.
All of the 15 member states except those under military rule and Cape Verde will participate in a standby force.
Speaking at the meeting yesterday, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, accused the junta that deposed Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July of "playing cat-and-mouse" with the bloc by refusing to meet with envoys and seeking justifications for the takeover.
He strongly criticised the junta's announcement that it had elements to put Mr Bazoum, who is being detained, on trial for treason.
The United Nations, European Union and ECOWAS have all expressed concerns over the conditions of his detention.
"The irony of it is that somebody who is in a hostage situation himself ... is being charged with treason. When did he commit high treason is everybody's guess," Mr Musah said.
The meeting of top officials comes after fresh violence in the insurgent-hit country, with jihadists killing at least 17 soldiers in an ambush on Tuesday.
Jihadist insurgencies have gripped Africa's Sahel region for more than a decade, breaking out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The "three borders" area between the countries is regularly the scene of attacks by rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.
The unrest across the region has killed thousands of troops, police officers and civilians, and forced millions to flee their homes.
Anger at the bloodshed has fuelled military coups in all three countries since 2020, with Niger the latest to fall when its elected president Mohamed Bazoum was ousted on 26 July.
The generals who have detained Mr Bazoum said "the deteriorating security situation" sparked the coup.
