Niger Republic’s highest court has lifted the immunity on the country’s overgrown President, Mohammed Bazoum.

This is coming about one year after Bazoum, a democratically elected civilian President, was overthrown by mutinous soldiers.

Speaking on Friday, Bazoum’s lawyer, Reed Brody, said the court ruling has opened the door for the military junta to prosecute him for alleged high treason.

Bazoum and his family have been under house arrest since he was ousted in the military coup.

The junta authorities said they plan to prosecute him for “high treason” and for undermining national security, and earlier this year initiated legal proceedings to lift his immunity in a newly created State Court, which became the country’s highest judicial authority.

Before Bazoum was forcibly removed from power, Niger Republic was the West’s last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that Islamic extremist groups have turned into a global terror hot spot.

Late last year, the highest court of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, ruled that Bazoum and his family were arbitrarily detained and called for him to be restored to office.

Niger Republic: Overthrown President, Mohamed Bazoum, stripped of immunity