Piotr Cywinski, director of Auschwitz Memorial in Poland has written a letter addressed to President Buhari over the 10-year jail sentence handed to 13-year-old Umar Farouq over blasphemy in Kano. Recall LIB reported that the teenager was handed the jail sentence for “using disparaging language on Allah” during a disagreement with his friend.
However Cywinski, a foreign activist, in the letter dated September 25 sought for pardon for Farouq, and further stated that he and 119 volunteers would serve a month in a Nigerian prison on Farouq’s behalf if President Buhari is unable to secure the pardon.
The Polish historian said he received dozens of emails over the weekend from people around the world who wanted to do the same thing.“I cannot remain indifferent to this disgraceful sentence for humanity,” wrote Piotr Cywinski, who is in charge of preserving the former Nazi Germany death camp, in an open letter Friday to the Nigerian president.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the leader declined to comment on the Kano case and directed questions to the northern state’s governor, who did not immediately respond.
The outcry put an international spotlight on Nigeria’s Sharia courts, which operate in 12 states throughout the country’s predominantly Muslim north.
