Nigeria, March 5 -- Alieu Kosiah has demanded the Swiss Federal Criminal Court pay him 1,356,000 Swiss Francs (US$1.458 million) for compensation for the six years he has spent in detention awaiting this trial and for the emotional and reputational toll the charges have taken.

"The long, unjustified detention to which he was subjected demands compensation," Dmitri Gianoli, Kosiah's lawyer, told judges on Thursday in his second day of closing arguments.

Mr Gianoli said the money would go toward "reparation for moral injury, serious injury to [Kosiah's] personality due to the disclosure of his identity in the press, because of his harsh conditions of detention having induced back pain."

He put the cost of his defence of the war crimes su...