Nigeria seeks death penalty for child bride, 14, accused of murdering husband
PUBLISHED : Friday, 28 November, 2014, 12:47pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 29 November, 2014, 2:54am
Associated Press in Kano
Wasilat Tasi'u, 14, talks to a defence counsel. Photo: AFP
The father of a 14-year-old child bride accused of murdering her husband with rat poison said he was appealing to a Nigerian court to spare his daughter the death sentence.
Wasilat Tasi'u is on trial for the murder of her 35-year-old husband, Umar Sani, who died after eating food that Tasi'u allegedly laced with the poison.
"We are appealing to the judge to consider Wasilat's plea," her father, Isyaku Tasi'u, said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, witnesses told the High Court in Gezawa, a town 100km outside Nigeria's second-largest city of Kano, that Tasi'u killed her husband two weeks after their wedding in April. Three others were also said to have died after eating the meal.
Wasilat Tasi’u's parents stand outside the courtroom of the Kano state High shortly after the first day of their daughter's trial on October 30. Photo: AFP
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty.
The case calls into question the legality of trying a 14-year-old for murder under criminal law and the rights of child brides, who are common in the poverty-stricken, predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria region.
"She was married to a man that she didn't love. She protested but her parents forced her to marry him," said Zubeida Nagee, a women's rights activist in Kano. Nagee and other activists have written a letter of protest to the Kano state deputy governor.
Nagee said Tasi'u was a victim of systematic abuse endured by millions of girls in the region. Activists say the blend of traditional customs, Islamic law and Nigeria's constitutional law poses a challenge when advocating for the rights of young girls in Nigeria.
Justice Mohammed Yahaya adjourned the court until December 22. Tasi'u is in state juvenile custody as she waits to learn her fate.
