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You can hardly have missed the case of Mubarak Bala. Mubarak is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria. Following complaints from a Muslim lawyer that he made posts on Facebook insulting Prophet Muhammad, Mubarak was arrested at his home in Kaduna on April 28, 2020. The next day he was taken to a police station in Kano State. Despite a court ordering the prison authorities to grant access to him in June 2020, for more than seven months, Mubarak was denied access to his lawyers. Since then, his lawyers have been permitted to see him only once. On May 8, 2020, Mubarak’s lawyers filed an emergency petition to enforce his fundamental rights. The Federal Constitution requires such cases to be heard within seven days. Nevertheless, for entirely frivolous reasons, the court delayed acting on the petition until October 19. 2020.
On December 21, 2020, the court ordered Mubarak’s release and the payment of compensation for illegal imprisonment. Mubarak was not released, nor were compensation payments made. He is still in prison today.
The Constitution also requires prisoners to be charged within seven days of arrest. However, Mubarak sat in jail for fourteen months before he was charged. Despite being charged, his case has yet to be heard in court. Let us be clear. No attempt has been made to deal with Mubarak according to the rule of law. He is illegally detained by the extremist Muslims who run Kano State. He is a prisoner of religious bigotry.
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