In April 2022, Bala was sentenced to 24 years in prison by a high court in Kano State, in Muslim-dominated Northern Nigeria after being convicted of blaspheming Islam.
Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has called for intensified efforts to secure the release of Nigerian atheist Mubarak Bala from jail.
In April 2022, Bala was sentenced to 24 years in prison by a high court in Kano State, in Muslim-dominated Northern Nigeria after being convicted of blaspheming Islam.
Nigerian atheist has been sentenced to 24 years in prison by a high court in the northern state of Kano after being convicted of blaspheming Islam.
Bala, the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, pleaded guilty to all 18 charges and asked for leniency.
He was sentenced under sections 210 and 114 of the Kano State Penal Code.
He had been detained since 2020 before being sentenced in 2022.
Soyinka in a statement on Tuesday said he had recently been bombarded by local and international human rights organisations with enquiries to know how his meeting with President Bola Tinubu went, regarding his promise to deliver a signed copy of Bala's launched Appeal to the new leader on his first opportunity to do so.
However, the literary icon said he had yet to meet Tinubu since he became President.
Soyinka said, "Thanks to my pledge to seize the first opportunity to personally deliver a signed copy of the recently launched Appeal by the above Prisoner of Conscience, Mubarak Bala, to President, I have been bombarded by both local and international Human Rights organisations, with enquiries about the outcome.
"I regret to state that some media have completely misreported on this, and I have yet to meet the current tenant of Aso Rock.
"I must however exploit this opportunity to call on all those who participated in the August 5h launch of the document as well as wishers of Mubarak Bala to continue and indeed intensify their efforts, through whatever avenues, to secure the release of this unjustly persecuted youth whose only crime was to insist on his freedom of thought and belief, and its expression.
"There should be no let-up until this symbol of our times is restored to full freedom and human dignity."
A group of Muslims had filed a petition to the authorities accusing Bala of blaspheming Islam on social media.
Bala renounced his Islamic faith in 2014.
According to Humanists International, in addition to being arbitrarily detained for 15 months, there have been several other "violations of his rights to a fair trial, which include denying Bala access to his legal counsel until October 2020, failing to comply with a Federal High Court order to release Bala on bail, and consistent attempts to obstruct Bala’s legal team".
Humanists International has also expressed concern over reports that Bala is being denied necessary medical care, in contravention of the UN Standard Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (also known as the ‘Mandela Rules’).