The Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi State, Nigeria, overturned...

The Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi State, Nigeria, overturned the conviction of Jibrin Babaji, a 23-year-old man who had been sentenced to be stoned to death for molesting three young boys.
Babaji had been convicted of sodomy on September 23, 2003, after confessing to having paid two ten-year-olds and a 13-year-old boy to have sex with him in exchange for 10 naira (6 euro cents) each.
But the Upper Sharia Court cleared Babaji on appeal, after ruling that a lower court had not applied Sharia's strict rules of evidence, in particular the need for four witnesses to the act.
"The judge, Dahiru Ningi, ruled that the lower court judge was hasty in passing judgement against Babaji," Bauchi State's spokesman Mohammed Abdullahi said.
"He had failed to follow due judicial process as provided in the Sharia penal code, which involved the testimony of four witnesses," he said.
The young boys were also convicted of sodomy in the case, and were immediately administered six strokes from a cane. Abdullahi said the appeal court had ordered the lower court judge, Sani Darazo, to tender an "unreserved apology and 3,000 naira (19 euros) compensation to the kids for the embarrassment and psychological torment they were subjected to through wrongful conviction for sodomy."