A Spanish High Court judge said on Thursday, May 28, 2015 that he would hear a lawsuit against Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram and its leader Abubakar Shekau for crimes against humanity and terrorism.
Judge Fernando Andreu ruled that he was permitted to handle the case because the case concerns a Spanish nun who was a victim of the group.
This, according to the judge was under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to try certain atrocities committed in other countries.
Spanish public prosecutors accused Boko Haram in its lawsuit of “harassing” and “putting pressure” on the nun in Nigeria around March 2013 as part of “a generalised context of actions of a terrorist nature by the jihadist organisation”.
