Nigerian court sentences 9 to death for blasphemy

Nine people have been sentenced to death in northern Nigeria after being found guilty of blasphemy, a court clerk and the head of the religious police said on Friday.The Upper Sharia Court in the city of Kano handed down death sentences on Thursday to a Sufi Muslim cleric and eight of his followers for blasphemy last month.

The comments, made during a religious ceremony, sparked anger and violence in the city. Court clerk Alhaji Nasuru said the nine, including one woman, were “sentenced to death in accordance with sections 110 and 302 of the Sharia penal code.” Four other followers of the cleric, Aminu Abdul Nyass, were acquitted, he added.

The defendants were arrested when violence broke out in the Makwarari district of Kano as they marked the birthday of the former leader of the Tijaniyya Sufi order, Ibrahim Nyass.An angry crowd attacked the ceremony and later burnt down Abdul Nyass’ home, police said at the time. Abdul Nyass belongs to a separate branch of Tijaniyya, some of whose beliefs are considered heretical because of their different interpretation of some basic Islamic principles.

The head of the Kano state Shariat police, known locally as the Hisbah, welcomed the verdicts. “We are happy the Sharia court handed the death sentences to the nine who made the blasphemous statements against the Holy Prophet,” Aminu Daurawa said.The trial was held in secret to avoid violence, after crowds set fire to a section of the Shariat court on the defendants’ first appearance  on May 22. The judgement still has to be approved by the Kano Governor, added Daurawa, who warned the sentence should remind Muslims that blasphemy attracts ultimate penalty.