Investing.com - Financial Markets Worldwide
Get 40% Off
Get 40% Off
👀 👁 🧿 All eyes on Biogen, up +4,56% after posting earnings. Our AI picked it in March 2024.
Which stocks will surge next?
Unlock AI-picked Stocks

Auschwitz memorial director offers to share Nigerian boy's blasphemy jail term

Published 26/09/2020, 15:53
Updated 26/09/2020, 15:54

LAGOS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The head of Poland's Auschwitz
Memorial has written to Nigeria's president offering to serve
part of a 10-year jail term handed to a 13-year-old boy for
blasphemy.
Piotr Cywinski requested a pardon for Omar Farouq, who was
accused of making blasphemous statements during an argument and
sentenced by a sharia court in Nigeria's northern Kano state
last month.
If a pardon was not possible, Cywinski said he and 119 other
volunteers would take on the boy's punishment and each spend a
month in a Nigerian jail.
As the director of a memorial to a place "where children
were imprisoned and murdered, I cannot remain indifferent to
this disgraceful sentence for humanity," he said in the letter
to President Muhammadu Buhari, posted on the Memorial's Twitter
account.
Two spokesmen for Nigeria's president declined to comment on
the unusual intervention on Saturday.
The presidency has not commented on the sentence that was
condemned by rights groups. The U.N. children's agency UNICEF
last month said the sentence was "wrong" and went against
international accords that Nigeria had signed.
A special adviser to the governor of Kano said he had seen
the letter on social media.
"The position of Kano state government remains the
decision of the sharia court," Salihu Tanko Yakasai told
Reuters.
Baba Jibo Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Kano State Judiciary,
said he had not seen the letter but added that the president had
the power to pardon the boy.
Nigeria is roughly split evenly between the mostly Christian
south and predominantly Muslim north. Twelve of Nigeria's 36
states apply sharia.

Latest comments

Install Our App
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.