In a last minute development, the prosecution in the terrorism trial against Sunny Ofehe has handed over files codenamed “Tokio”. First deemed irrelevant to the case by the public prosecutor, the files were mailed to the defendant’s lawyers one week before the trial resumes on Monday 5 December.

Mr Ofehe told RNW his lawyers will use information contained in the files to request that judges dismiss his case.

The Netherlands-based Nigerian activist has been accused in the Netherlands of conspiring to commit terrorist acts in his native country of Nigeria. More specifically, he is accused of plotting to blow up oil pipelines in the oil rich Niger Delta. He also faces charges of forgery and people smuggling.

Tokio files

The “Tokio” files contain results of initial police investigations into Mr Ofehe. Following insistent pleas by his lawyers to access the files, the prosecutor had released them for consultation. One of Mr Ofehe’s lawyers, Michiel Pennings, said he was surprised to then receive the hard copy at his office after spending two days in court archives going through “Tokio” documents.

He told RNW that the files contain extensive information on all aspects of Mr Ofehe’s life: his contacts, the pattern of his telephone calls, his hope for the Niger Delta Foundation: “a huge fish net has been cast to find out who Sunny Ofehe is”, he said.

Extensive investigation
[media:image]Mr Pennings said that what he found confirmed his “suspicion that an exceptionally extensive investigation” has been conducted, involving the “frequent and lengthy use of special investigative powers”. The lawyers question whether this was necessary and justified.

Mr Ofehe’s lawyers say they intend to discuss how the judicial enquiry has affected Mr Ofehe personally: his status, his financial situation, his friendships. When the trial opened on September 5, they said that the terrorism charge amounted to “character assassination”.

No more objections
Asked why the physical Tokio files had been sent to the defence at the eleventh hour, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, Paul van der Zande, told RNW that “since they had already seen the documents, there were no more objections to hand them over.”

Monday’s procedural session is expected to focus on who will be called to the witness stand when the trial proper starts at a later date.