The child bride accused of murdering her husband in Nigeria has been set free by the court

May 25, 2015 Murder charges have been dropped against Wasila Tasiu, a 15-year-old girl accused of using rat poison to kill her 35 year old husband, Umar Sani in Nigeria. The case was reported last year and the matter brought the issue of child brides and forced marriages into the limelight, while attracting attention and anger from rights activists and international organizations.

The Kano state attorney general told the BBC that the case was dropped because of Wasila’s status as a minor and because the victim’s family had forgiven her. Prosecutor Lamido Abba Soron-Dinki asked the High Court in Gezawa, Kano state, to “terminate the case of culpable homicide against Wasila Tasi’u”,

He said, “With a heavy heart, I apply that the accused be discharged,”

Wasila had been forced by her father to marry the deceased, and admitted to killing him by adding rat poison to his food, a meal shared with the three others.