UPDATE 4-'Music is not a crime': U.N. experts urge Nigeria to lift singer's death sentence

(Adds Nigerian presidency)
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, and said
the sentence broke international law.
Yahaya Aminu Sharif was sentenced last month by a sharia
court in Kano, in Nigeria's mostly Muslim north, after he
performed the song and shared it 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.
A spokesman for the Kano state judiciary, which runs sharia
courts alongside the civil courts, said the decision was taken
with legal backing, adding that he was unaware of the appeal.
"If we are requested to release him, it has to be through
legal procedure," said spokesman Baba Jibo Ibrahim.
Kano'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 as he could
not "remain indifferent" as he represented a place where
children were imprisoned and murdered.
Piotr Cywinski said dozens of people from around the world
had also volunteered to serve part of Farouq's jail term.
"From the United States, from Europe, from Asia, from
Africa, including Nigeria ... I'm not even able to sit down and
count them all but there are certainly many more than 120,"
Cywinski told Reuters.
Two spokesmen for Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari
declined to comment on Monday on either of the sharia court
rulings in Kano.