Teenager convicted for blasphemy in Kano relocates abroad

A Nigerian teenager Omar Farouq who was sentenced to death by a sharia court has relocated from Nigeria.

Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in a post on its website said Farouq was facing further threats to his life from some extremists in Kano State.

Farouq was sentenced to death after he was accused of using foul language considered to be blasphemous toward Allah in a chat with his friend while he was a 13-year-old. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Sharia court in 2020.

A Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Kola Alapini, had filed the appeal against the Kano State government to challenge the lower court judgement.

Farouq was thereafter cleared of all charges, acquitted, and released from prison on January 25, 2021.

The director of Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum Piotr Cywinski thereafter appealed to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to pardon Farouq.

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