diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cmsccoll.c b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cmsccoll.c
index 4096b9760f7..21fb9cabc56 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cmsccoll.c
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cmsccoll.c
@@ -1603,7 +1603,6 @@ static void TestComposeDecompose(void) {
     */
 
     ucol_close(coll);
-    coll = NULL;
 
     log_verbose("Testing locales, number of cases = %i\n", noCases);
     iter = ucol_openElements(coll, t[u]->NFD, u_strlen(t[u]->NFD), &status);