NIGERIA. MAN FACES DEATH FOR SODOMY IN SHARIA CASE, UN

July 8, 2005: Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions raised the alarm over the case of a man who was on death row in northern Nigeria awaiting execution by stoning after a Sharia court found him guilty of sodomy.
Alston called for the entire process that led the man's sentencing to death to be reviewed immediately.
"Sodomy cannot be considered one of the most serious crimes for which, under international law, the death penalty can be prescribed. The punishment is wholly disproportionate," Alston said in a press statement at the end of a visit to Nigeria.
He said the man, who was about 50, was initially accused by a Hisbah Committee, or group of volunteers who help uphold Sharia, of having homosexual sex with a much younger man. He denied the charge and a Sharia court acquitted him.
However, asked by the judge if he had had homosexual sex on other occasions, the man said yes and on that basis he was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to death by stoning. There was no suggestion in the conviction that the sex was not consensual.
Alston said he had no way of knowing if the case was an isolated one as he had stumbled upon the man by chance while investigating death row in the Kano prison. (Sources: Reuters, 08/07/2005)