Amnesty International (AI) says the overturning of two blasphemy-related convictions in Nigeria is victory for justice.
The appellate division of Kano State High Court set aside 13-year-old Omar Farouq of blasphemy and ordered a fresh trial for Aminu Yahaya Shariff, who was sentenced to death also for blasphemy.
A Sharia court in Kano State, northwest Nigeria, convicted Farouq in August 2020 and sentenced him to ten years in prison after he was accused of making derogatory statements toward Allah in an argument with a friend.
For his part, Shariff, 22, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy by the Upper Sharia Court on the same day it convicted Farouq.
Kano, a predominantly Muslim northern Nigerian state, has Islamic Sharia courts that function alongside civil courts and introduced Sharia law in 2000.
Their lawyer, Kola Alapinni, appealed against the sentencing of Farouq, saying it violated children’s rights and Nigeria’s constitution.
‘Omar Farouq Bashir is free! Sentence set aside for lack of legal representation. The Sharia court judgment is a nullity. The minor was wrongfully convicted’, Alapinni said, according to Premium Times.
‘On Yahaya Aminu Sharif, the court quashed the conviction. But the case has been remitted back to the sharia court for a retrial due to procedural irregularities’.
In its reaction, the rights organisation says the imposition of a death sentence after an unfair trial violates the right to life.
‘Moreover, blasphemy does not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes”, that is, crimes that involve intentional killing, the only category of crimes for which international law allows the death penalty’, AI Nigeria tweeted.
UNICEF had faulted the sentencing of the 13-year-old boy to ten years in prison.
‘The sentencing of this child, 13-year-old Omar Farouq, to ten years in prison with menial labour is wrong’, the UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said.
‘It also negates all core underlying principles of child rights and child justice that Nigeria – and by implication, Kano State – has signed on to’.
Sources: Premium Times Amnesty International Nigeria
Photo source: Blogtrepreneur
