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U.N. experts urge Nigeria to lift singer's blasphemy death sentence

Published 28/09/2020, 12:13
© Reuters.

GENEVA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.N. rights experts asked
Nigeria on Monday to release a 22-year-old singer who was
condemned to death over an allegedly blasphemous song, saying
the sentence broke international law.
Yahaya Aminu Sharif was sentenced last month by a sharia
court in Kano, the commercial hub of Nigeria's mostly Muslim
north, after he was accused of sharing the song on WhatsApp.
"Music is not a crime," read a joint statement from the
group of U.N. rapporteurs.
"Application of the death penalty for artistic expression or
for sharing a song on the internet is a flagrant violation of
international human rights law, as well as of Nigeria's
constitution," said Karima Bennoune, special rapporteur on
cultural rights.
The rights experts said Nigeria should overturn the death
sentence and guarantee the singer's safety while he launched an
appeal. Protesters enraged by the song burned down Sharif's
family home on March 4.
There was no immediate reaction from the judicial
authorities in Kano, which runs sharia alongside civil courts.
The state's justice system has been in the spotlight since a
sharia court also sentenced a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in
prison last month after he was accused of making blasphemous
statements during an argument. The head of Poland's Auschwitz Memorial has written to
Nigeria's president asking him to pardon the boy, Omar Farouq,
and offering to serve part of the jail term himself.
Kano's sharia courts are active, but death sentences for
blasphemy are unusual and the most recent, handed down in 2015
to nine followers of the Tijani Muslim sect, have yet to be
carried out.

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