Teenager Omar Farouq who was acquitted after being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Sharia Court in Kano for blasphemy has left Nigeria.
Farouq was facing further threats to his life from some extremists in Kano, Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said on its website.
Farouq was in 2020 handed the sentence after being accused of using foul language considered to be blasphemous toward Allah in a chat with his friend while he was 13 years old.
The teenager was cleared of the charges in January after Lagos-based rights lawyer Kola Alapini appealed the judgement.
Director of the museum Piotr Cywinski had also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to pardon Farouq.
However, announcing Farouq’s relocation, Cywinski said, “In order to avoid a possible attack, Omar had to immediately relocate following his release”.
He did not disclose Farouq’s new location.
Cywinski said the polish establishment plans to help Farouq “to build a new life. Depending on the amount raised, we plan to provide him with a new home in a safe environment outside the Kano state where he was accused and tried, pay for his education, and also compensate part of the costs incurred by the lawyers supporting him in Nigeria.”
He added that due to legal regulations of museums’ operations in Poland, the fundraising effort and all related communications will be driven by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, of which the museum director is also president.
