NIGERIA: MURDER CONVICT HANGED IN KADUNA

UNCLAS ABUJA 000032 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: MURDER CONVICT HANGED IN KADUNA ¶1. (U) On January 3, a man recently convicted of the July 2000 murder of a woman and her two children by a Shari'a court in Katsina was hanged in Kaduna. The man, Sani Yakubu Rodi, became the first person to be executed under the criminal Shari'a system. Although the Shari'a Court had determined that Rodi should be executed by stabbing, the mode of execution was changed to hanging. Apparently, the trial court choose stabbing because Rodi killed his victims with a knife. ¶2. (SBU) Comment: In that Rodi was a confessed triple murderer, his case had none of the human rights implications of the Safiya Husseini stoning sentence for adultery (see septel.) However in that the first capital punishment under Shari'a now has been carried out, proponents of criminal Shari'a and its traditional penalties may begin to agitate more actively for the implementation of the controversial stoning sentence in Husseini's case. Andrews