A Nigerian court has sentenced an atheist to 24 years in prison for making blasphemous anti-Islam social media posts in the country’s northwestern region.
Mubarak Bala, a former Muslim, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to blasphemy charges and serving nearly two years in prison during his trial.
Bala is the president of the Nigerian Humanist Association, and advocates say his conviction highlights the dangers of openly questioning one’s faith in northern Nigeria, which is mostly Muslim.
According to court documents, prosecutors in northern Kano state accused Bala of publishing Facebook posts insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam, as well as attempting to “create a breach of the public peace.”
Bala had long maintained his innocence in the blasphemy case, but following “enormous pressure for the previous few years,” he altered his plea to guilty, according to Leo Igwe, founder of the Nigerian Humanist Association.
Bala was convicted in a secular court, but he could have faced the death penalty if he had been tried in Nigeria’s Islamic courts, which operate in the country’s north.
“He believes the judge is tainted… and that he would prefer to have closure,” said Bala’s lawyer, James Ibori.
Some Nigerians and campaigners were outraged by Bala’s protracted detention and final conviction, accusing officials of a defective prosecution procedure. According to Ibori, he should not have been charged under Kano state law because “he was not in Kano when the purported violation was committed.”
Bala had been denied access to healthcare, held in solitary confinement, and compelled to “worship the Islamic way” while in prison, according to Ibori.
The state government of Kano denied any misconduct during the trial and stated that the verdict might be appealed.
Humanists and nonbelievers in Nigeria are now “possible criminals… who can easily be placed into jail just for expressing their ideas,” according to Igwe, following Bala’s conviction.
“In Nigeria, humanists have become endangered citizens.”
