Kano Court Sentence Popular Atheist Mubarak Bala To 24 Years In Jail For Blasphemy Against Islam

A high court in Kano state sentenced a prominent atheist to 24 years in jail.

The court found Mubarak Bala guilty of blasphemy against Islam.

Mubarak Bala, the 37-year-old president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, pleaded guilty to all 18 charges and asked for leniency.

He was detained since 2020.

A group of Muslims filed a petition to the authorities accusing Mubarak Bala of posting uncomplimentary messages about Islam on social media.

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Kano has a majority Muslim population. It is one of around a dozen states in northern Nigeria where Muslims practise Islamic law alongside secular laws.

Bala would have faced the death penalty if he was tried in a Islamic court.

UN human rights experts and international rights groups condemned his detention and called for his release.

Bala renounced the Islamic faith in the year 2014.

Reports said that they took him to a psychiatric hospital before he was later discharged.

He was later arrested in 2020 in Kaduna state and was moved to Kano.