Nine persons have been sentenced to death by an Upper Sharia Court, Rijiyar Lemo, in Kano, for blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam in a trial conducted in secret.
According to reports, the details of the court’s proceedings and the name of the trial judge were yet to be made public.
The reports indicate that the court said only two people were convicted but a court official, who identified himself simply as Nasir was quoted to have said nine people were sentenced.
He however did not provide the names of the other seven.
The offence, committed in early June, had triggered protest in Kano, and the court where the trial began was burnt down prompting the authorities to assign the case to another court.
The names of the convicts released by the court are Abdul-Inyas, Hajiya Mairo and seven others to death
A statement by the State Sharia Court of Appeal, signed by a man named Nasiru, said the nine persons were found guilty under section 110 and section 382b of the Sharia Penal Court law year 2000. “They are hereby sentenced to death,” the statement read.
The statement acknowledged that some Muslim faithful in Kano threatened violence if the accused were set free, but the court however freed Alkasim Abubakar, Yahya Abubakar, Isa Abubakar, and Abdullahi Abubakar, who were arrested alongside the nine convicted persons.
They were found not guilty by the court.
Already, news of the judgment has sparked jubilation by a section of Kano residents.
