Nigerian atheist released after jail for blasphemy…what you need to know
Photo credit: BBC
Mubarak Bala, the Nigerian atheist jailed for blasphemy against Islam, has been released after fulfilling his four-year term in jail.
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The 40-year-old man in an interview with the BBC disclosed that he pleaded guilty to 18-count charges bordering on his Facebook posts in 2020 to save his life and others in Kano when asked why he pleaded guilty back then.
“I believe what I did then was saving not only my life but people in the state and people attached to my case because they were also a target,” Bala said.
He also disclosed that he’s still afraid because his safety is yet guaranteed.
According to him, “The concern about my safety is always there,” Mr. Bala said, “Freedom is here, but also there is an underlying threat I now have to face. All those years, those threats, maybe they’re out there.”
Brief Background of Mubarak Bala’s Case
Bala’s case started on 27 April 2021 when the police commissioner of Kano Command filed a petition against him for alleged insult against Prophet Muhammad in his Facebook posts. According to the petition, Bala’s act was a violation of Section 26(1)(c) of the Cybercrimes Act in Nigeria.
On April 30, 2021, he was arrested by the Kano State Police Command and later transferred to the Gbabasawa police station, Kaduna State, for breaching public peace.
There was also an online petition at Change.org that called for Bala’s Facebook account to be closed. This petition garnered over 17,000 signatures.
Bala was held in detention for over two months without appearing in court as every effort to arraign him before court was delayed by several factors.
At his 100th year in detention without being charged, Bala got a letter of solidarity from the famous Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.
Rumours of his death in detention circulated around late August, but on 2 October, 2021, Bala met with his legal team and relayed his fear of death threats against him and his family to them.
Bala’s fundamental human rights petition was heard on 19th October but was postponed to 10th December.
However, on 21 December, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that Bala’s continuous incarceration was illegal and ordered his immediate release and awarded 250,000 Naira (around $500 USD) against the Respondents.
Yet, he was still detained by the police till Bala spent his 365th day in detention without charge. This led to a social call for his release by the United Nations (UN).
After over 654 years in detention, Bala was convicted of 18 counts of causing a public disturbance under Sections 210 and 114 of the Kano State Penal Code, respectively, and sentenced to 24 years in prison on 5th April, 2022.
In May 202, his legal team appealed against the judgement of the Kano magistrate on four counts. Bala was later sentenced to four years of imprisonment after the judge declared his 24-year sentence excessive.
Who is Mubarak Bala?
Mubarak Bala was born in 1984 and hails from Kano State, northern Nigeria.
He is a chemical engineer and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria who declared himself an atheist in 2014.
As a well-known and respected member of the Humanist movement, Bala was awarded Humanist Society Scotland’s Gordon Ross Humanist of the Year Award on 8 January 2021.
Humanist International reports that “Bala was held against his will for 18 days in a psychiatric ward of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano, Northern Nigeria, after he was assessed as needing psychiatric help because he was an ‘atheist.'”
