UPDATE: June 3, 2025 marked 6 months that human rights defender, Moussa Tchangari, has been held in arbitrary detention. Read the press release here.
On December 3rd, Moussa Tchangari, a human rights defender and secretary general of the civil society organization, Citizens’ Alternative Spaces, was arrested in Niamey, Niger’s capital.
Moussa was at his home when at least three gunmen in plain clothes, who claimed to be policemen, arrested him. For nearly two days, his whereabouts remained unknown.
On December 5, 2024, he was located and charged, amongst other things, with advocating terrorism and criminal association in connection with terrorism.
We call on Niger’s authorities to drop all charges and immediately release Moussa Tchangari, who is being detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights.
Since the 1990s, Moussa Tchangari has been known as an activist and human rights defender, working to advance human rights and the rule of law in Niger. He had been detained for his human rights work in the past. Days before his arbitrary arrest on December 3, 2024, he had told a colleague that he was worried and expressed concerns about the risk of arbitrary arrest and detention looming over many Nigeriens, especially those publicly criticizing the military authorities, including himself.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: June 16, 2025
Dear General Abdourahamane Tiani,
I am writing to bring to your attention the case of human rights defender, Moussa Tchangari, secretary general of the civil society organization, ‘Citizens’ Alternative Spaces’ (Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, AEC), who was arrested without a warrant on December 3, 2024.
For nearly two days, Moussa Tchangari’s whereabouts remained unknown. On December 5, 2024, his lawyers finally located him at the Central Service for Combating Terrorism and Organized Transnational Crime in Niamey, where he had been transferred. He has been charged, amongst other things, with “advocacy of terrorism, undermining state security and criminal association in connection with terrorism”. If found guilty, he could be jailed between five and ten years and stripped of his Nigerien citizenship.
The arrest and detention of Moussa Tchangari appears to be linked to a pervasive crackdown on the political opposition, media, and peaceful dissent carried out by the Nigerien authorities since they took power by military coup in July 2023.
I urge you to ensure all charges against Moussa Tchangari, who is being arbitrarily detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights, are dropped and that he is released immediately.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
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