Girl Sentenced to Flogging for Premarital Sex

A 17-year-old Muslim girl who rights groups say was forced by her father to have sex with three men will be flogged for breaking a law against premarital sex, a judge said Friday.

Judge Idris Usman Gusau said the sentence--180 lashes with a cane--would be carried out Jan. 27, despite an appeal by the federal government to suspend the punishment.

The sentence has prompted an outcry from human rights groups, which fear that the girl, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, might not survive. Gusau said her condition would be monitored during the flogging, which could be halted if she cannot cope with it all at once.

The girl was charged after it was discovered that she was pregnant. According to the rights group Amnesty International, the girl said she was impregnated by one of the three middle-aged men. The sentence had been delayed until she delivered her baby.

The girl was sentenced in September by an Islamic court in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara, prompting an outcry by human rights groups. The Canadian High Commission in the capital, Abuja, delivered a diplomatic rebuke to the Nigerian government.

No immediate charges were filed against the baby’s father. Officials said he had not been identified.

The government interceded, instructing state authorities to suspend the sentence and explain their decision.

Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe declined to comment Friday on the judge’s decision to press ahead with the sentence, saying the government still did not have all the details of the case.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, has sought to avoid confrontation over the issue of Islamic law, or Sharia, whose introduction in several northern states last year sparked bloody clashes between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous nation. Hundreds were killed.

Southern Nigeria is predominantly Christian, and northern Nigeria is overwhelmingly Muslim, but there are large numbers of Christians in the north and Muslims in the south.

According to Amnesty, the girl had no representation at her trial.

Decisions taken under Islamic law are subject to appeal, but the judge said the girl had not filed an objection.

In an apparent challenge to federal authorities, the date he chose to carry out the sentence is the first anniversary of the introduction of Sharia in Zamfara, which will be marked by elaborate festivities.