Northern state carries out first Sharia execution

The first execution ordered by an Islamic court since the imposition of strict Sharia in northern Nigeria was carried out on Thursday in the state of Katsina, despite appeals by human rights groups, media organisations reported. Mallam Sani Rodi, 25, was hanged for the murder of a woman and her two children, aged three years and three months, whom he killed with a machete. Humanitarian groups opposed to the death penalty, including the Lagos-based Constitutional Rights Project, had condemned the execution, saying that it would signify a dangerous trend in the application of Sharia law.