NIGERIA: SHARIA COURT SENTENCES MAN TO BE STONED FOR RAPING AND INFECTING A MINOR

April 23, 2014: an Islamic court in Kano State sentenced a man to be stoned to death for raping a 12-year-old student, Hauwa Mohammed, and infecting her with HIV.
The defendant, Ubale Saidu Dotsa, testified that the Devil instigated him to have sex with the girl. The 63-year-old said he did not know he was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Dotsa argued that the teenager tempted him by visiting his shop often at night in Kumbotso, a suburb of Kano.
Justice Farouk Ahmad ignored his plea for mercy. He said Dotsa was a married man who had committed adultery, which is punishable by death by stoning. In his judgment over the matter, the magistrate held that he relied on Sharia law guided by Quran to sentence the convict accordingly. The convict had pleaded guilty seven times before the judge passed his verdict.
Vanguard newspaper reported Ubale is said to being living with HIV in the last two years. He lost his first and second wives to same virus in 2011. According to record before the court, the wives died in six month interval. Delivering the judgment, further ordered that 36 million naira (about 225,000 USD) be paid as compensation to the parents of Hauwa Mohammed if their daughter eventually dies. (Sources: AP, 23/04/2014; theheraldng.com, 24/04/2014)