Sanday Chongo Kabange, AfricaNews reporter in Lusaka, Zambia
A Nigerian Islamic Sharia court in the northern city of Kaduna has banned online debates on social networks - Twitter and Facebook - on the country's first wrist amputation for theft, according to court papers. The court ordered the Civil Rights Congress to suspend its online debates on the case.
The court granted an interim injunction "restraining the respondents either by themselves or their agents from opening a chat forum on Facebook, Twitter or any blog for the purpose of the debate on the amputation of Malam Buba Bello Jangebe," said the order.
Jangebe was the first person to have had his right wrist amputated on the orders of a Sharia court in Zamfara State, a year after 12 northern Nigerian states adopted the strict Islamic penal code.
The order followed a suit filed Friday by the Association of Muslim Brotherhood of Nigeria, a pro-Sharia group based in the northern political capital of Kaduna, which argued that Internet forums would be used as "a mockery of the Sharia system as negative issues will be discussed".
In the wake of the interim injunction, the case is set for hearing next Monday.
