Insults were exchanged in the heat of the moment, he admits, but Farouq, a teenager, thought nothing of the exchange until he was summoned to the police station and charged with blasphemy against God.
When it became known about the nature of his arrest, an angry mob descended on the Farouq family’s home and forced his mother to flee to a nearby village, his lawyer said.
Farouq, who was 16 at the time, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor by a Sharia court in Kano, Northern Nigeria.
“I am delighted, I am in a happy mood. And I am grateful to everyone who helped and supported this result with the grace of Allah,” Farouq, now 17, told CNN in his first interview after his release.
Alapinni was instrumental in Farouq’s release from prison.
“We found out that they had been convicted of blasphemy on the same day, by the same judge, in the same court, and we found out that no one was talking about Omar, so we had to quickly file an appeal for him,” he says. said.
“Blasphemy is not recognized by Nigerian law. It violates the Nigerian Constitution.”
The Kano Supreme Court stated that Farouq’s conviction as a minor was “wrongfully committed and … is hereby set aside and the defendant is hereby dismissed and acquitted”.
An ‘unjust’ punishment
Farouq says he feels sad that the Sharia court was “unjust” against him.
Sharia court officials have not commented on Farouq’s case and efforts to reach them have been unsuccessful. CNN also reached out to Kano’s state government for comment, but has not yet received a response.
In total, Farouq has been incarcerated for more than five months without access to family or lawyers.
His family said they were not aware of the details of his case and did not even know the date of his trial.
“They were not fair to us,” his uncle Umar Aliyu told CNN. “When they brought this boy to court, they didn’t tell us to the court where they were taking him … and they refused to tell us the scheduled date for the judgment. They kept chasing us away. I went to the Hisbah office. to plead with the interrogator, but he told me to leave his office. I left hurt and almost in tears, extremely sad. ”
The family also found out from media reports that Farouq had been convicted and convicted, Aliyu said.
Aliyu remembers being ‘enveloped in grief’ every time he thought about his cousin, locked up without contact with his family.
“Everyone … was very disturbed, we were really sad. We just had to comfort each other, advise some to take it as something prescribed by Allah … told them to have patience. This brought some emotional relief.
“During the time he was in prison, every time I thought about him, I got worried. Every time I thought about him, I would feel sad.”
‘His life is in danger’
Now released, Farouq says he is determined to complete his education and has ambitions to enter politics to fight the kind of injustices he faced.
“I pray that Allah will bless me to become governor or president to reform Sharia law and to end the injustice against my fellow citizens and myself, as in some court cases the offense does not justify the harsh verdict. the deprivation of your right., oppression and abuse, ”he said.
Although his conviction was quashed, Farouq’s life remains in danger from some fanatics who view his release as an insult, his lawyer said.
Alapinni told CNN how terrified Farouq was when he came to meet him outside of prison when he was released.
“He himself knows he’s in danger because when we tried to get him out of jail … you could see the fear in his face, he didn’t even want to follow us … everyone had told him if he got out steps from the prison walls he will be killed, ”Alapinni said.
“We need to arrange safe passage for him now. His life is in danger in Kano – it will never be the same again, ‘he said.