**Niger’s ousted President Mamadou Tandja should be tried for violating the constitution and for corruption, local human rights group Fusad says.**Mr Tandja changed the constitution last year to allow him to stay in power beyond his legal term limit.
Fusad, which is allied to opposition parties that welcomed last week’s army coup, say he also gave out contracts to foreign oil and uranium firms.
The new junta has said it will oversee the writing of a new constitution.
Calling themselves the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, the coup leaders have promised to turn Niger into a democracy.
In a radio broadcast on Monday evening, they said putsch leader Salou Djibo would act as both the head of state and government, ruling by decree.
NIGER
- Chronic poverty
Population 14 million, 61% live on less than $1 a day - Resource rich
Huge reserves of uranium, Chinese firms digging for oil - Politically unstable
History of coups, assassinations and on-off rebellion by nomadic Tuareg people in the north
Source: World Bank
Niger, where the army matters
He will have the power to appoint and sack the government and the prime minister, who is still to be named.
The soldiers said a new constitution would be put to the people in a referendum.
But no timeline was given for the transition process and no election date has been set.
The junta says Mr Tandja is currently being held in the presidential palace, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to visit him to check on the conditions of his detention.
Meanwhile, the military has reportedly used tanks to surround the house of Gen Moumouni Boureima, the former head of the army who refused to back last Thursday’s coup.
However, the BBC’s Caspar Leighton in Niamey says the capital is calm.
There is an increased military presence around army bases and the presidency, but limited patrols and no checkpoints in the rest of Niamey, he says.
Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960.
But Mr Tandja’s supporters argue that his decade in power has brought a measure of economic stability to the poor West African nation.
Under his tenure, the French energy firm Areva has begun work on the world’s second-biggest uranium mine - ploughing an estimated $1.5bn (£970m) into the project.
China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $5bn deal in 2008 to pump oil within three years.