Nigerian acquitted of blasphemy bags award in Switzerland

A mother of five, Rhoda Jatau, has received the 2026 Shahbaz Bhatti Freedom Award in Switzerland.

Jatau spent 19 months in prison on blasphemy-related charges before being acquitted.

She was presented with the award at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland on October 16.

The annual award is presented to a person the forum regards as committed to defending freedom of religion or belief.

It is named for Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's first Christian federal minister, who was assassinated in March 2011 after opposing his country's blasphemy laws.

Jatau was charged for blasphemy after she allegedly shared a video condemning the mob killing of Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu in 2022.

Yakubu, a Christian student, was stoned by a mob in May 12 at the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto for alleged blasphemy. She was later set on fire by the mob

Jatau was accused of circulating a WhatsApp video that condemned the killing of Yakubu with prosecutors charging her with blasphemy with cybercrime and religious disturbance offenses.

She ended up in custody for 19 months during trial because she was granted bail in December 2023, shortly after a judge refused to dismiss the case against her.

Her trial ran for another year before a judge in Bauchi State acquitted her of all charges on Dec. 10, 2024.

Speaking while receiving the award, she said: "My experience in prison was not an easy one. For over a year I did not see my children. I could only hear about them."

Executive director of First Step Forum, Marc Jost, who presented the award, said: "You simply wanted to be a faithful mother, a neighbor, and a person of conscience. But when darkness demanded silence, your courage spoke volumes."

Previous recipients of the award were: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in 2013, Pope Francis in 2014, Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in 2018, the Leah Foundation of Nigeria in 2019, and Syrian recipients Bishop Shimoun Daniel in 2023 and Valentine Hannan in 2025.