Prominent Nigerian atheist activist Muhammad Mubarak Bala pleaded guilty to blasphemy on Tuesday in a northern Nigerian court which sentenced him to 24 years in prison, an AFP journalist found.
“The court sentences Muhammad Mubarak Bala to 24 years in prison,” Kano High Court Judge Faruk Lawan said following his trial, which opened on Tuesday morning.
Muhammad Mubarak Bala, 37 and president of the Humanists Association of Nigeria, was arrested in April 2020 for writing Facebook posts criticizing Islam and its prophet.
The court ruled that these messages might undermine public order in the conservative Muslim north of Nigeria, where Sharia law is applied alongside common law.
The activist pleaded guilty in court to the 18 charges once morest him.
His lawyer James Ibor objected to his guilty plea and asked the judge if he might speak to his client, a request which was granted.
“I wanted to be sure that he was not under any influence or intimidation,” Me Ibor told AFP.
But when the trial resumed, Mr Bala once more pleaded guilty, however imploring “mercy and leniency” from the court.
“The purpose of my posts was not to cause violence, but I realized that they might cause violence. I will be careful in the future,” said Mr. Bala, dressed in a white shirt to short sleeves, which looked healthy.
