A court in Nigeria has found separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu guilty of terrorism following a decade-long legal case filled with drama.
The court said it was satisfied that Kanu made a series of broadcasts to incite violence and killings, as part of his campaign for a separate state in southeast Nigeria, known as Biafra.
Kanu has been convicted on all seven charges he faced - alongside terrorism, they included treason and involvement with an outlawed movement.
The court has adjourned, with the judge expected to hand down a sentencing later. Kanu could face the death penalty, although this is rarely enforced in Nigeria.
Kanu always denied the charges and challenged the court's jurisdiction to put him on trial.
Once a relatively obscure figure, he came to national prominence in 2009 when he started Radio Biafra, which called for an independent state for the Igbo people, broadcasting to Nigeria from London.
Though he grew up in southeastern Nigeria where he attended the University of Nsukka, Kanu moved to the UK before graduating, acquiring British nationality.
In 2014, he formed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a movement advocating for independence, which was banned as a terrorist organization in 2017. Its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network, has been implicated in violence recently.
Judge James Omotosho stated that Mr. Kanu knew what he was doing, he was bent on carrying out these threats without consideration for his own people. Reaction to the verdict in his stronghold in southeastern Nigeria has been muted.
Kanu was first arrested in October 2015, but he jumped bail in 2017 after a military raid on his home. His bail was later revoked, and he was re-arrested in 2021 under controversial circumstances, with his lawyers claiming he was detained in Kenya before being returned to Nigeria.
The calls for Biafran independence date back many years, with the region having previously declared independence in 1967, leading to a devastating civil war. Many Igbo people feel marginalized by the Nigerian government, although public support for independence remains uncertain.
