Teenager, Farouk who was sentenced for blasphemy in Kano, relocates abroad

Nigerian teenager identified as Omar Farouk who was sentenced by a Sharia court has relocated from Nigeria due to threats to his life.

Recall that the teenager, Farouq was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he wqs accused of using language considered to be blasphemous toward Allah in a chat with his friend when he was a 13-year-old.

He was sentenced by a Sharia court in 2020.

Taking his case up, a Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Kola Alapini filed the appeal against the Kano State government to challenge the lower court judgement.

Piotr Cywinski, the director of Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum also appealed to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to pardon Farouq.

Farouq was thereafter cleared of all charges, acquitted, and released from prison on January 25, 2021.

However, Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, in a post on its website, said Farouq was facing further threats to his life from some extremists in Kano State.

Cywinski in a post on the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial website, said Farouq’s life “is still under severe threat by extremist groups.”

The director said, “In order to avoid a possible attack, Omar had to immediately relocate following his release”.

He did not disclose Farouq’s new location.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said it plans to help Farouq “to build a new life. Depending on the amount raised, we plan to provide him with a new home in a safe environment outside the Kano state where he was accused and tried, pay for his education, and also compensate part of the costs incurred by the lawyers supporting him in Nigeria.”

Cywinski said due to legal regulations of museums’ operations in Poland, the fundraising effort and all related communications will be driven by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, of which the Museum Director is also President.

“The Foundation will do this pro bono,” Cywinski said.