UNICEF, a child rights agency that operates worldwide, had condemned the sentencing of a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The incident took place in northern Nigeria.
Minor to be sent to prison
The child, Omar Faroug, was convicted in a Sharia court in Kano State in northwest Nigeria after he was accused of using foul language toward Allah in an argument with a friend.
Faroug was sentenced on August 10 by the same court that recently sentenced a studio assistant Yahaya Sharif-Aminu to death for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed, according to the child's lawyers.
Sharif-Aminu allegedly blasphemed the Prophet Mohammad in a song praising an imam to the extent that it elevated him above the Holy Prophet.
According to BBC, the song was viewed as completely acceptable by some fellow followers of the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood.
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The child's punishment is in violation of the African Charter of the Rights and Welfare of a Child and the Nigerian constitution, according to his counsel Kola Alapinni, who said that they filed an appeal on his behalf on September 7. The boy was tried as an adult because he has attained puberty and has full responsibility under Islamic law.
Alapinni said that he or other lawyers that are working on the child's case had not been given access to the child by authorities in Kano State.
The lawyer said he found out about Faroug's case by chance when he was working on the case of Sharif-Aminu, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy at the Kano Upper Sharia Court.
According to Alapinni, they found out that they were convicted on the same day, by the same judge, in the same court, for blasphemy, and they found out that no one was talking about the child, so they had to move fast to file an appeal for him.
Alapinni added that blasphemy is not recognized by Nigerian law, and it is inconsistent with the constitution of Nigeria.
The lawyer said that the boy's mother had fled to a neighboring town after mobs descended on their home after the arrest of her child. He said that everyone in the area is scared to talk and living under the fear of reprisal attacks.
UNICEF's appeal
On September 16, UNICEF issued a statement expressing deep concern about the child's sentencing. Peter Hawkins, the UNICEF representative in Nigeria, said that the sentencing of the boy to 10 years in prison with menial labor is wrong.
Hawkins said that it also negates all core underlying principles of child rights and child justice that Nigeria, and by implication, Kano State, has signed on to. Kano State practices Sharia law alongside secular law.
UNICEF has now called on the Nigerian government and the Kano State government to review the case and to reverse the sentence, according to the DailyMail.
According to the statement sent by UNICEF, the case underlines the urgent need to accelerate the enactment of the Kano State Child Protection Bill so as to make sure that all children under 18 years of age are protected.
Hawkins said that all children in Kano should be treated in accordance with child rights standards.
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