HRW condemns Sharia execution

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday condemned the execution of a man on the order of a Sharia court in Nigeria, and urged the Nigerian authorities not carry out the death sentences of such courts. "As the first execution under Sharia in Nigeria, we fear that this may signal a willingness on the part of the authorities to carry out further death sentences in future," Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of HRW's Africa Division, said in a statement released in New York. Sani Yakubu Rodi (21) was hanged in the northern state of Katsina, on 3 January 2002 after a Sharia court found him guilty of stabbing to death a woman and her two children, aged four years and three months. He was reportedly caught at the scene of the murder and arrested by the police, the New York-based human rights watchdog said. "Rodi did not have legal representation at any stage of his trial; he apparently told the court that he would defend himself," HRW said. "In the initial hearing on 5 July, he pleaded not guilty. However, in a subsequent hearing on 4 September, he changed to a guilty plea. The court sentenced him to death on 5 November. He did not take up the opportunity to appeal, and his death sentence was subsequently confirmed. His execution was authorized by the Governor of Katsina State." HRW called on the Nigerian Government to guarantee international standards of fair trial in all courts, including Sharia courts, and appealed to state governors to commute any future death sentences. Executions under Sharia, it warned, were likely to heighten tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in northern Nigeria. Several other people in Nigeria have been sentenced to death by Sharia courts, but not yet executed, including a pregnant woman found guilty in October 2001 of having pre-marital sex. "The death penalty is an inhuman, degrading and cruel punishment which cannot be justified in any circumstance, however brutal the crime of which the defendant is accused," Takirambudde said.