Abuja, 09 April, 2022 / 3:00 pm (ACI Africa).
A High Court in Nigeria’s Kano State has sentenced the president of the Nigerian Humanist Society to 24 years behind bars on blasphemy charges, a decision that Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has described as a “gross violation” of the right to the freedoms of expression.
Mubarak Bala who converted from Islam has been detained since 28 April 2020, when he was arrested at his home in Nigeria’s Kaduna State following a petition to the Kano State Police Commissioner by a law firm in Kano, accusing him of insulting Islam in Facebook posts.
In a Wednesday, April 6 report, CSW's Founder President Mervyn Thomas laments the fact that Mr. Bala has undergone unimaginable suffering at the hands of the authorities, and adds, “He has now received a sentence which is disproportionate to the alleged crime.”
Mr. Bala’s sentencing, Mr. Mervyn says, “constitutes a gross violation of his right to the freedoms of expression, thought, conscience, and belief.”
“A grave injustice has occurred,” the President of the UK-headquartered team of specialist advocates that works on over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, to ensure that the right to freedom of religion or belief is upheld and protected says in the April 6 report.