Besieged former Governor Mike Sonko has petitioned the High court seeking an immediate release from police custody after being held for more than a week.

Sonko, who is admitted at Nairobi Hospital after falling ill at Gigiri Police Station, asked the High Court to order for his immediate release from “illegal detention” until his court case is heard.

“That the court be pleased to issue conservatory orders directing the immediate release of the applicant (Sonko) from illegal detention pending the hearing of the applicant,” he said through his lawyer John Khaminwa.

He has been held in Gigiri Police Station cells since he was arrested after being summoned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over remarks on chaos after the 2017 election.

In a certificate of urgency, the politician wants to be set free on grounds he had been subjected to psychological, mental and physical torture which he terms inhuman and degrading.

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Sonko also argues the charges brought against him by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) were trumped-up and that his family, friends and colleagues had been denied access to him.

“I am aware that the state with malice and intent to persecute me has resurrected criminal cases which had collapsed in 1998 through to 2001,” he claims in his petition by his lawyers.

He accuses the state of plotting to use the case facing him at the Kahawa Law Courts to detain him for 30 more days after being seen wearing military fatigue and denies links to terrorism.

Sonko further is seeking court orders suspending his further prosecution in the corruption cases before the Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi as well as a criminal case before Kiambu Law Court.

He says his multiple concurrent prosecutions are an abuse of the criminal justice system and go against public interest.

Sonko was on Tuesday freed on a Sh300,000 bond in an assault and forced entry into private property case and on Wednesday appeared at the Milimani Court for a Sh10 million graft case.