Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation, and the Church of Satan clashed on Twitter on Monday over a former New York City prosecutor, Linda Fairstein.
Fani-Kayode had taken to his social media handle to lambast Fairstein who led the prosecution of the Central Park Five case, wherein five teenagers, four African-American and one Hispanic, were wrongfully convicted for the 1989 rape and assault in Central Park of a white female jogger.
The former minister described Fairstein as a racist and a member of the Church of Satan.
He wrote, “Former NYPD cop, Linda Fairstein, is a racist, witch and a member of the Church of Satan. She should be prosecuted and burnt at the stake with her books. She deserves the death penalty for what she did to those five boys #Central Park 5 #Cancel Linda Farstein.”
In a swift reply, however, the Church of Satan said Farstein was not its member.
The church, in a response through its official Twitter handle, tweeted, “She has nothing to do with us. Please leave us out of it.”
Fani-Kayode, however, responded, “Get thee behind me Satan!”
The church, however, said such threats do not work.
It responded, “That doesn’t actually work. We are right here in front of you telling you that you are making false, unfounded accusations and asking you nicely to please leave us out of it as it has nothing to do with us.”
The former minister again responded saying that he was sure that Farstein was a member of the Church of Satan and dared the church to publish a list of its members.
Fani-Kayode tweeted, “In Jesus name, I bind you and send you to the desert places. The devil is a liar; he was a liar and a murderer from the start and the father of lies. You claim she is not your member and you expect me to believe you. Make your list of members public and prove me wrong. Stop disowning your own.”
Fairstein is an American author, attorney, and former New York City prosecutor focusing on crimes of violence against women and children. She was the head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office from 1976 until 2002.
During that time, she oversaw the prosecution of the Central Park Five case, wherein five teenagers, four African-American and one Hispanic, were wrongfully convicted for the 1989 rape and assault in Central Park of a white female jogger.
All five convictions were vacated in 2002 after Matias Reyes, a convicted serial rapist and murderer confessed to having been the sole perpetrator of the crime, and DNA testing showed he was the sole contributor of the DNA of the semen on the victim. After Reyes’s confession in 2002, Fairstein still maintained that the wrongfully convicted teenage boys were guilty and she lauded the police investigation as “brilliant”.
A recent Netflix series titled, ‘When They See Us’ brought the case back to the limelight.