Omar Farouq was convicted in a Sharia court in northwestern Kano state after being accused of using ugly language against Allah in a quarrel with a friend.
He was sentenced on August 10 by the same court that recently sentenced a studio assistant Yahaya Sharif-Aminu to death for blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed, according to lawyers.
Farouq’s sentence violates the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Nigerian constitution, said his lawyer Kola Alapinni, who told CNN that they filed an appeal on his behalf on September 7.
Farouq was tried as an adult because he reached puberty and has full responsibility under Islamic law.
Alapinni told CNN that he or other lawyers working on the case did not receive access to Farouq by Kano authorities.
He said he found out about Farouq’s case while working on the case of Sharif-Aminu, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy at the Kano High Sharia Court.
“We found out that they were convicted the same day, by the same judge, in the same court, for blasphemy and we found out that no one was talking about Omar, so we had to move quickly to file an appeal for him,” he said. he said. said.
“Blasphemy is not recognized by Nigerian law. It is incompatible with the Nigerian constitution.”
The lawyer said Farouq’s mother fled to a neighboring town after crowds descended on their home after his arrest.
“Everyone here is scared to speak and lives in fear of retaliatory attacks,” he said.
UNICEF on Wednesday issued a statement “expressing deep concern” over the conviction.
“Sentencing this child – 13-year-old Omar Farouq – to 10 years in prison for poor work is wrong,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF’s representative in Nigeria. “It also denies all the fundamental principles underlying the rights of the child and the justice of the child that Nigeria – and implicitly, the Kano state – has signed.”
Kano State, like most predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria, practices Sharia law alongside secular law.
CNN contacted a spokesman for Kano State Governor for comment, but did not hear it before it was published.
UNICEF has called on the Nigerian government and the Kano state government to urgently review the case and reverse the sentence, the organization said in a statement.
“This case further underlines the urgent need to speed up the adoption of the Kano State Child Protection Bill so as to ensure that all children under the age of 18, including Omar Farouq, are protected – and that all children in Kano are treated in compliance with children’s rights standards. “Hawkins said.
Correction: an earlier version of this story and the title distorted Omar Farouq’s age. Based on the new information from court documents, we corrected them. Farouq was 16 when he was arrested.