nigerian sodomy suspects freed

Source: Sunday Times

December 9, 2005: A Nigerian Islamic court has acquitted two men who had been accused of homosexuality, lifting the threat that they be stoned to death.

Judge Mustapha Sani Saulawa told the court that the prosecution had not brought enough evidence to convict the pair on a capital charge and freed them after six months in jail.

"Even if there is prima facie evidence, given the gravity of the punishment, the prosecution needs four witnesses to the kind of crime you are accused of," he told the defendants.

Kabir Yusuf, 40, and Usman Sani, 18, were arrested on June 19 in a public toilet a short distance from the Sharia court in the northern Nigerian city of Katsina.

The police alleged that they had been having sex, but could produce no witnesses to the act itself, only to the two men leaving the toilet together while adjusting their trousers.

"Therefore this court acquits you for lack of evidence," Saulawa said.

"However, your stay in prison should serve as a warning to you to be of firm character and desist from any form of immorality," he added.

Islamic Sharia law was reintroduced in Katsina State in August 2001, making it one of a dozen mainly Muslim northern states to readopt the code since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999.

Under the interpretation of Muslim legal texts now in force, sexual offences such as adultery, rape and homosexuality are punishable by death.

But, while more than a dozen people have been convicted under these laws, no-one has yet been stoned to death and the law remains controversial.

After the trial the older defendant, Yusuf, said: "I'm delighted to be acquitted, after six months in prison as an innocent man in fear of execution. I've been humiliated."

Asked whether he intended to take legal action over his imprisonment and the accusations against him, he said: "As a father I have responsibilities, and no time to waste in litigation."