Man sentenced to amputation

2006-04-24 22:19

Kano - An Islamic court in the northern Nigerian city of Katsina ordered on Monday that a young man's hand be chopped off as a punishment for burglary, said a court official.

Lawal Bala Batsari, a prosecutor at the upper sharia court in Katsina, said a judge had ordered that 20-year old Idris Garba's hand be amputated at the right wrist for stealing money and property from a house.

"Judge Mustapha Sani Saulawa convicted Idris Garba to amputation today based on the provision of section 134 (1) of the Katsina state sharia penal code and based on his voluntary confession," said Batsari.

Garba was arraigned last September after he was arrested with $107 in cash and a video recorder, clothes and a tape deck worth a total of $206, said Batsari.

"The convict pleaded guilty on the first day the case came up for hearing and he insisted that he was sane when he was asked by the judge if he had any mental problem," he added.

Strict Islamic code

"He has been given 30 days to appeal against the sentence if he is not satisfied with the judgment, but will remain in prison custody," said Batsari.

Katsina is one of a dozen predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria that have re-adopted a strict Islamic code since 1999, when the country returned to democracy after 15 years of military rule.

Although several people have been convicted of theft since the law code was reintroduced in Katsina, no one has yet been sentenced to amputation in the state. Fewer than a dozen convicts have lost their hands in other parts of Nigeria.

- AFP