Amnesty International, a global human rights organisation, has condemned the death sentence passed on a Nigerian singer, Yahaya Sharif, based in Kano in northern Nigeria.
Reacting to the Sharia Court judgment, the group said via its Twitter handle on Thursday that the sentence passed on the singer for blasphemy was a travesty of justice.
The Amnesty international’s tweets came three days after 22-year-old Sharif was sentenced to death by hanging by the Kano Upper Shari’a Court in Hausawa Filin Hockey area of the state.
The judge, Aliyu Kani, said he found Sharif guilty as charged and convicted him based on Section 382 (b) of the Kano Penal Code of 2000.
But Amnesty International believes there are serious concerns about the fairness of Sharif’s trial and the framing of the charges against him based on WhatsApp messages.
“The imposition of the death penalty following an unfair trial violates the right to life.
“The authorities of Kano State must immediately quash the conviction and death sentence of Yahaya Sharif Aminu, who was sentenced to death by hanging on spurious charges of blasphemy by the Kano Upper Shari’a Court,” local media reports quoted Amnesty International as saying.
Sharif, a resident of Sharifai in Kano metropolis, was accused of committing the crime against the prophet of Islam in a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020.
This sparked outrage on the part of some youths, who staged a protest and burned the singer’s family home.
The protesters later led a procession to the command headquarters of Hisbah – a state government-owned security outfit that enforces the Shariah law in the highly conservative northern Nigerian state.
GIK/APA