Mubarak Bala, a former Muslim, has been accused of trying to ’trigger a breach of the general public peace’.
A Nigerian courtroom has sentenced an atheist to 24 years in jail for making social media posts it discovered to be blasphemous in opposition to Islam within the West African nation’s northern area.
Mubarak Bala, a former Muslim, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading responsible to expenses of blasphemy after a prolonged trial throughout which he spent almost two years in jail.
Bala is the president of the Humanist Affiliation of Nigeria and activists have stated his conviction illustrates the dangers of being overtly faithless in northern Nigeria, which is predominantly Muslim.
Prosecutors in northern Kano state accused Bala of constructing Fb posts that insulted the Prophet Muhammad and the faith of Islam, and tried to “trigger a breach of the general public peace”, based on courtroom paperwork.
Bala lengthy maintained his innocence of the costs of blasphemy however he modified his plea to responsible solely after “monumental strain for the previous few years”, stated Leo Igwe, founding father of the Nigerian Humanist Affiliation.
‘Decide is compromised’
Bala was tried in a secular courtroom however may have risked a loss of life sentence in Nigeria’s Islamic courts that function in different components of the nation’s north.
“He thinks the choose is compromised … and that he would quite simply have closure,” Bala’s lawyer James Ibori stated.
Bala’s extended keep in jail and eventual conviction triggered anger amongst some Nigerians and activists who accused authorities of a flawed prosecution course of. He shouldn't have been charged underneath Kano state legislation, Ibori stated, as a result of “he was not in Kano when the offence was allegedly dedicated”.
Whereas in jail, Bala had been denied entry to healthcare, stored in solitary confinement, and compelled “to worship the Islamic method”, stated Ibori.
The Kano state authorities denied any wrongdoing within the trial and stated the judgement might be appealed.
With Bala’s conviction, humanists and nonbelievers in Nigeria are “now potential criminals … who can simply be thrown into jail only for expressing their views”, stated Igwe.
“Humanists have turn out to be endangered residents of Nigeria.”
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