Sentenced blasphemer chained in underground cell, denied counsel
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Nigerian musician sentenced to death for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad by a Sharia court in Kano, is reportedly being held under harsh and inhumane conditions as the clock continues to tick against his 30-day appeal time-frame.
SaharaReporters reports that the young musician is being chained in an underground cell at a prison in Kano State.
READ ALSO: Breaking: Unilag VC removed by governing council
22-year-old Sharif was, on Monday, sentenced to death for committing blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam in a song he circulated via WhatsApp, following the provisions of Section 382(b), Kano penal code of 2000.
“They are keeping him in the worst possible condition. They have denied him visitors including his immediate family. He has been kept in a solitary confinement cell known as Back Cell at the Kano Central Prison. The cells are dark and underground.
“The boy may get infected where they are keeping him or exposed to cold. They have put a leg chain on him since he got in and he sleeps with the leg chain,” a prison official said.
A great number of Nigerians, as well as Human Rights Groups, have faulted the court decision, holding that it goes against everything democracy stands for as well as one’s fundamental human right of expression.
The Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project also weighed in, asking the Nigerian Government to immediately quash the death sentence, as it “amounts to a violation of the right to freedom of expression”.
