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The Appeal Court sitting in Kano has reduced the 24-year sentence handed to an atheist, Mubarak Bala, to five years.<\/p>\n

Bala is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

He was arrested at his residence in Kaduna over alleged blasphemy and incitement.<\/p>\n

A Kano State High Court had in 2022 sentenced Bala to 24 years imprisonment for committing blasphemy against Allah and Prophet Muhammad.<\/p>\n

Bala subsequently appealed the 24-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to charges of \u2018causing a public disturbance\u2019.<\/p>\n

DAILY POST learnt on Monday that the Court of Appeal has reduced his sentence to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

His lawyer, James Ibor, shared the news in a post on his Facebook page titled \u201cMubarak Bala\u2019s first victory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bala had instructed his lawyers to appeal the sentence on four grounds.<\/p>\n

The four grounds of the appeal are \u2013 \u201cLack of jurisdiction of the Kano State High Court; the Judge\u2019s predisposition to convict as indicated in the delivery of his ruling; failure to accord Bala the benefits of a guilty plea and misapplication of law in sentencing Bala to consecutive terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

BREAKING: Appeal Court slashes atheist, Mubarak Bala\u2019s 24-year blasphemy sentence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Appeal Court sitting in Kano has reduced the 24-year sentence handed to an atheist, Mubarak Bala, to five years.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4168,15248,15,761],"tags":[5003,1227,764,13681,180,762],"class_list":["post-31894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-mubarak-bala","category-news","category-top-headlines","tag-bala","tag-breaking","tag-headlines","tag-mubarak","tag-news","tag-top"],"yoast_head":"\n