After being found guilty of blaspheming Islam, a Nigerian atheist was sentenced to 24 years in prison by a high court in the northern state of Kano.

Mubarak Bala, the 37-year-old president of the Nigerian Humanist Association, pled guilty to all 18 charges and requested leniency. He has been detained since the year 2020.

Bala was accused by a group of Muslims of spreading derogatory statements about Islam on social media, according to the statement.

Kano is a predominantly Muslim city. It is one of about a dozen states in northern Nigeria where Islamic and secular laws coexist. If Bala had been prosecuted in an Islamic court, he could have been sentenced to death. His detention had been criticised by UN human rights experts and international rights organisations, who had appealed for his release.

In 2014, Bala renounced his Islamic beliefs. He was subsequently brought to a psychiatric facility before being released, according to reports. In 2020, he was apprehended in Kaduna state and brought to Kano, his home state.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, and the majority of its residents, both in the predominantly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south, are highly religious.

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