Actor and humanist Eddie Marsan speaks at Mubarak Bala protest
Eddie Marsan, the actor on our screens right now in ‘The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe’ led speeches on 28 April protesting at the imprisonment and 24-year sentence of Mubarak Bala for blasphemy. Bala is President of the Nigerian Humanist Association.
The Nigerian authorities have had him in prison for two years but only charged him less than a year ago, for posting ‘blasphemous’ content on Facebook.
The demonstration outside the Nigerian High Commission was organised by Humanists UK and attended by SELHuG members Denis Cobell and Hester Brown alongside fellow humanist and human rights campaigners. Andrew Copson, Humanists UK Chief Executive said: “Mubarak’s sentence is a devastating blow to the whole Nigerian humanist community. No-one should be imprisoned simply for expressing humanist beliefs, much less be sentenced to 24 years. We urge the Nigerian authorities to free Mubarak Bala without delay.”
Clive Aruede of the Association of Black Humanists, who is from Nigeria, asked how such a cosmopolitan country could behave in such an uncivilised way. He called on Nigeria to uphold freedom of belief, thought, and expression.
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