Nigeria | Blasphemy: Kano Muslim lawyers back death penalty on Kano musician, urges govt to comply

The Muslim Lawyers’ Association (MULAN), Kano branch says there was nothing wrong with the death penalty passed on Shariff Sharifai, a musician convicted for blasphemy, urging the State Government to comply with the conviction

The association stated this in a statement signed by Muhammad Garba, its chairman of the association.

“The honourable Judge of Upper Shariah Court Hausawa was right in his judgment in which he convicted and sentenced the accused to death for blasphemy against the holy prophet Muhammad without prejudice to the right of appeal of the convict,” MULAN said in the statement sighted by The ICIR.

The association further urged the executive arm of the Kano State Government to comply with the sentence of the court.

“MULAN urges the Executive arm of Government in Kano State to ensure strict compliance to the Judgement as part of its commitment towards proper implementation of Shariah,” the muslim lawyers said.

According to them, the act for which Sharifai was convicted is recognised by the Kano State Shariah Penal Code and provided in section 382(B).

They noted that the convict had also confessed to the offence for which he was prosecuted during the trial of which detail is contained in a Whatsapp group known as “Gidan Umma Amina”.

Garba noted that the stand of the association is that the Judge of Upper Shariah Court Hausawa was right in his judgment in which he convicted and sentenced the accused to death for blasphemy against the holy prophet Muhammad.

According to Garba, “the judge was right because the Supreme Court had decided in the case of Abubakar Shalla Vs State (2007) 12 MJSC at page 52-53 paragraph G-B that the position of the Law under Shariah is that any sane and adult Muslim, who insults, defames, or utter words or acts which are capable of bringing into disrepute, odium, contempt of the holy prophet such a person has committed a serious crime which is punishable by death.”

“The general public should understand that Shariah is a Muslim Law applies only to Muslims. Therefore, any person who accepts to be a Muslim must obey the provisions of Shariah irrespective of whether or not it pleases him.

“For people who don’t follow the Islamic faith we remind them that the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has guaranteed Nigerians to practice and observe the religion of their choice and be bound by its laws and principles,” MULAN noted.

Source: International Center for Investigative Reporting, Staff, August 15, 2020

Death sentence: Amnesty International demands release of Kano musician

Global rights group, Amnesty International, has condemned the death sentence handed down to a musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, by a Sharia Court in Kano State for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed.

Amnesty also called on the Abdullahi Ganduje-led government to immediately quash the conviction.

The rights group said this on Thursday in a statement titled, ‘Authorities must quash the conviction and death sentence imposed on Kano-based singer’, signed by its spokesman, Isa Sanusi.

The statement read in part, “The authorities of Kano State of Nigeria must immediately quash the conviction and death sentence of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, who was sentenced to death by hanging on spurious charges of blasphemy by the Kano Upper Shari’a Court.”

The group described the conviction as a travesty of justice, adding that the musician did not get a fair hearing.

“Furthermore, the imposition of the death penalty following an unfair trial violates the right to life. Yahaya Sharif-Aminu must be released immediately and unconditionally,” said Osai Ojigho, Amnesty International Nigeria Country Director.

Sharif-Aminu was arrested in March after protesters burnt down his family home and led a procession to the Kano Hisbah command headquarters, demanding for his arrest and prosecution.

Source: punchng.com, Staff, August 15, 2020

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Iran’s War on Women: Executions, Floggings, and the Politics of Fear

The Iranian regime is increasingly using death sentences, corporal punishment, and judicial persecution against women—not only to silence dissent but also to intimidate a society demanding change. The Iranian regime has long viewed women as central to the country’s struggle for freedom—and therefore as central targets of repression. The nationwide uprising of 2022 fundamentally altered the political landscape, demonstrating that Iranian women were no longer merely participants in protest movements but among their principal organizers and symbols. Since then, the authorities have steadily intensified their campaign against women, expanding the use of executions, imprisonment, corporal punishment, and judicial intimidation.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog