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Child bride on trial for killing husband with rat poison

Human rights activists slam charges against a 14-year-old girl given in marriage to a man more than twice her age.

By Mary Papenfuss
Wasila Tasi'u, 14, allegedly asked the young sister of one of her co-wives to buy rat poison just hours before Tasi'u prepared a meal to celebrate her two-week marriage to 35-year-old Umar Sani. (ChildNotBride/Facebook)
Wasila Tasi'u, 14, allegedly asked the young sister of one of her co-wives to buy rat poison just hours before Tasi'u prepared a meal to celebrate her two-week marriage to 35-year-old Umar Sani. (ChildNotBride/Facebook)

UNGUWAR YANSORO, Nigeria, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A 14-year-old child bride is being tried in a Nigerian courtroom on charges that she killed her 35-year-old groom and three others with rat poison.

The girl, Wasila Tasi'u, allegedly asked a young sister of one of her husband's co-wives to buy the poison just hours before she prepared a meal to celebrate her two-week marriage. Groom Umar Sani had several wives, said officials.

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Tasi'u "said rats were disturbing her in her room," the 7-year-old girl testified.

A neighbor also invited to the meal decided not to continue eating the food when he noticed "sandy-like particles, black in color" and told the judge in the girl's hearing that he "was not comfortable with the taste; it was only Umar who continued eating."

Tasi'u sobbed at her first court appearance and the judge in Gezawa High Court in northern Nigeria entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf. He rejected her lawyer's request that she be tried in a juvenile court system. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against her.

The case has infuriated international human rights activists who say child brides should be considered victims, not criminals.

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Child brides are common in northern Nigeria. Thirty-nine percent of all Nigerian girls are married before they turn 18.

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