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A Nigerian Islamic Shariah court sentenced 10 men, including a Muslim cleric, to death for blasphemy at a closed hearing on Thursday in the northern city of Kano.

A date for the executions hasn’t been set and four other accused people were released, Kano High Court spokesman Baba Jibo Ibrahim said by phone on Friday.

The Tijjaniya cleric was arrested in May after suggesting the sect’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim Inyaas was more powerful than the Prophet Muhammad. The sentencing was done in secret due to saftey concerns after the court was attacked last month, Ibrahim said.

Kano is one of 12 states in the country’s predominantly Muslim north that adopted Shariah, or Islamic law, from 2000 to 2002. Nigeria’s population of more than 170 million people is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.