Cablegate: Nigeria: Murder Convict Hanged in Kaduna

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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

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