http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/sept/04/national-04-09-2011-007.html

Niger Delta activist faces life imprisonment in Netherlands
By Daniel Alabrah
Sunday, September 04, 2011



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The trial of president/founder of Rotterdam-based Hope for Niger Delta Campaign (HNDC), Comrade Sunny Ofehe, who has been charged with terrorism, opens tomorrow in The Netherlands.
The Dutch prosecutor has charged the activist with plotting to blow up oil pipelines operated by Shell in the Niger Delta.

He faces life imprisonment if convicted.
The Delta State-born Ofehe, who is also a Dutch citizen, was arrested in his home in Charlois, Rotterdam, on February 22 this year on suspicion that he was involved in human trafficking and document forgery.
He was granted bail two weeks later after being held in a solitary cell and deprived from contacting his wife and lawyers.

But, surprisingly, the human trafficking charge was dropped and replaced with the charge of plotting to blow up pipelines in Nigeria’s oil producing region. The historic trial has generated much interest in the Dutch media, as it is the first time an individual is being charged with terrorism in the country.

Curiously, Ofehe is being tried for a crime that the prosecution claims was to be committed outside The Netherlands. His lawyers expressed surprise over the new charges. In a telephone conversation yesterday afternoon, one of Ofehe’s counsel, Mr Ed Manders, said it is curious that “oil bunkering, which is reportedly common in Nigeria, has suddenly become an offence in The Netherlands. We are very surprised.”
He explained that his client’s phone lines had been tapped by the Dutch police, which recorded his conversation with an undisclosed Nigerian on how to produce a documentary on the oil bunkering situation in the Niger Delta.

“This charge has come as a complete surprise to our client and us. (It) is based on just a few tapped phone calls between our client and an acquaintance of his in Nigeria in which Sunny simply tries to come to an agreement to record bunkering of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region. In no manner was his intention directed to blowing up any oil pipelines.

“The surprise of this charge was even bigger when we noticed that these phone calls were already known to the prosecutor at the moment Sunny was arrested. However, he was not charged with terrorism then and only went into pre-trial custody on the charge of people smuggling and forgery.“Now suddenly the prosecutor changed his mind and charges him with this serious crime, with hardly any ground to stand on,” Manders said in a statement made available to Sunday Sun.

He added that the police tapped all the phones and computers of Ofehe during the investigation and put a car with a camera in front of his office for three weeks.“It is not clear whether the Nigerian government has indicated interested in the case even though Ofehe said when contacted on the telephone that he had briefed the Nigerian Embassy at The Hague.
Checks at the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice revealed that there was also no file on the matter in the ministry.

A source in the office, who craved anonymity, said: “I have checked and I can tell you that there is no record of such a case with us. I heard from you for the first time and it is a surprise.”
It could also not be ascertained at press time if the embassy had sent a report to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on the matter.