Canada outraged as girl gets 100 lashes
'It was less force than you use to hit
a donkey,' Nigerian official says

STEPHANIE NOLEN AND MURRAY CAMPBELL

Tuesday, January 23, 2001

PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA and TORONTO -- The Canadian government and human-rights groups have reacted with outrage to the surprise move by a regional government in Nigeria to flog a teenaged girl for having premarital sex.

Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, 17, wept during the beating and was noticeably in pain, according to witnesses, who added there was no visible bleeding from the lashes delivered by a court official to her back with a rigid hide whip.

"It was less force than you use to hit a donkey and animals and such like," Bashir Sande, spokesman for Zamfara state governor Ahmed Sani, said. "She managed to receive the lashes. She did not fall down."

Mr. Sande said Ms. Magazu was asked, after the caning, what her opinion was and he said she "thanked almighty Allah that she has now been purified, and asked God to forgive all her sins."

Ms. Magazu was lashed 100 times on Friday before hundreds of people gathered in a dirt clearing in front of the one-room courthouse in Tsafe, in the northwestern state of Zamfara.

A statement from the office of the Zamfara deputy governor said Ms. Magazu walked home, a distance of about 15 kilometres, after receiving her punishment.

The timing of the punishment, in the wake of assurances that an appeal of Ms. Magazu's conviction before an Islamic court could take a year or more, surprised the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. Canada earlier had rebuked Nigeria, and Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley had described Ms. Magazu's situation as "an appalling case."

"We deplore the carrying out of this punishment by local authorities in the face of appeal proceedings," department spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff, said. "We hope that future appeals related to these kinds of cases will be allowed to be heard before sentences are carried out."

Ms. Lilkoff said Canada continues to believe that such punishments violate international norms, and has called on the Nigerian government to respect its obligations under international human-rights agreements.

Canadian officials in Nigeria are attempting to clarify details surrounding the punishment, and Ms. Lilkoff did not know whether there would be any further moves. Canada could withdraw its high commissioner in protest or call in the Nigerian high commissioner in Ottawa to hear firsthand of the government's disapproval.

Ms. Magazu was initially sentenced to 180 lashes; that was later reduced to 100 lashes.

Nigerian human-rights groups were in the process of appealing her sentence. A lawyer who went to the Tsafe courthouse on Friday afternoon to pick up the trial records for use in the appeal was told nothing of the caning that had taken place hours earlier.

"We are completely shocked and stunned," said Ayshe Imam, director of Baobab for Women's Rights, the group leading the appeal. "This has very bad implications for law enforcement in Zamfara and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of anyone arguing that sharia [Islamic law] can be implemented fairly."

Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International in Canada, said he was "deeply dismayed" by the flogging, particularly since authorities had led people to believe that it was to have been postponed indefinitely.

"There are a lot of questions, quite distressing questions, which arise as to why and how it happened the way it did."

Zamfara was the first of nine states in northern Nigeria to implement sharia a year ago.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail just a day before the lashing, Ms. Magazu said she was "afraid" of the cane, and that her first thought was of the pain involved.

Mr. Sande said that as many as 1,000 people watched the caning. "We did not even announce the event beforehand. If we had, there would have been 10,000 people there."

Judge Idris Usman Gasau is reported to have addressed the crowd and quoted relevant parts of the Koran, codified into law in Zamfara. Mr. Sande translated the verse as, "A male and a female who engage in fornication will be given 100 lashes and a section among you should witness it and do not have mercy on those who have offended God's laws."

There was, according to Mr. Sani, supposed to be a doctor at the caning. But Ms. Imam said witnesses with whom she had spoken had not seen any medical personnel.

In a baffling report, Mr. Sande said that when the caning was finished, a man called Mohammed Sani stepped forward and said he would marry Ms. Magazu.

Three weeks ago, there were reports she had been married in an attempt to mitigate her shame. Last week, Ms. Magazu told The Globe she was living in her new husband's home in his village.

Ms. Magazu was accompanied to the caning only by her father's youngest brother, according to Mr. Sande. Her baby was left at home.

Mr. Sande said she was caned on Friday because a doctor had found her to be "hale and hearty."

He denied that the punishment had ever been set for Jan. 27, the anniversary of the implementation of sharia in Zamfara. There were also reports, based on the Koran, that the sentence would be carried out 40 days after she gave birth. It is not clear when Ms. Magazu gave birth to her son but it is unlikely to have been 40 days ago.

"There is not any reason why it was sooner," he said. "It was a matter of following the regulations of our own religion. Only after punishing her are we hearing human-rights group calling foul. We will not be intimidated by any human-rights group."

He said that there had been no appeal filed, and that Ms. Imam's organization had missed the 30-day appeal period.

While the 30-day window had elapsed, the court has the discretion to extend the time for an appeal, and Baobab had been assured that this would be the case. Ms. Imam said her group would nonetheless continue with the appeal of the sentence.