Rhoda Jatau, a Christian and mother of five, was charged with blasphemy in a Nigerian court on December 19 for forwarding a video defending a lynched Christian student.
During her arraignment on Monday, Jatau was officially charged with blasphemy, inciting a mob, and exciting contempt of religious creed.
She is being tried in the northeast Nigerian state of Bauchi’s high court. Bauchi practices a form of Sharia law, under which blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution.
Jatau, a 45-year-old medical worker, was arrested by Nigerian authorities on May 20 and has been held without the ability to communicate and without a trial for over six months, which is against both Nigerian and international law, according to religious rights advocates.
Jatau was arrested after forwarding a video of a Muslim denouncing the mob killing of Nigerian Christian college student Deborah Emmanuel.

Jatau forwarded the video defending Emmanuel via Whatsapp to her work colleagues at the Primary Healthcare Board of the town of Warji. Some of her co-workers reported the video and Jatau was subsequently accused of blasphemy.
According to local news source Light Bearer News, when news of Jatau’s actions reached the public many immediately called for her death. One Muslim group posted her photo online and called her “the one God has cursed.”