A pregnant
woman has been sentenced to be hanged by a Sudanese court for converting to
Christianity. Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, who is being held in detention
with her 20-month-old son, had been ordered to abandon her faith and return to
Islam. She has also been charged with adultery for marrying a Christian man.
The
death sentence was handed down despite appeals by Western embassies for
compassion and respect for religious freedom. At a court in Khartoum, Judge
Abbas al Khalifa said: “We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not
returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged.”
He
also sentenced her to 100 lashes for “adultery”. Born to a Muslim father, the
woman was convicted under the Islamic sharia law that has been in force in
Sudan since 1983, and outlaws conversions under threat of death.
She
is married to a Christian national of South Sudan, which won independence in
2011 after decades of civil war.
Earlier
in the hearing, an Islamic religious leader spoke with her in the caged dock
for about 30 minutes, trying to convince her to change her mind.
But
she told the judge: “I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.”
Following
her sentence, one of her lawyers Mohanad Mustafa said they would seek to
overturn the ruling on appeal. About 100 people, including Western embassy
representatives, were in court to hear the sentence.
The
United States, Canada, Britain and the Netherlands have all expressed “deep
concern” over her case. Amnesty International said she had been condemned to
death for offences that should not be considered crimes at all, and condemned
the sentences as “abhorrent”.
Manar
Idriss, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, said: “The fact that a woman
has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being
married to a man of an allegedly different religion is appalling and abhorrent.
“Adultery
and apostasy are acts which should not be considered crimes at all. It is
flagrant breach of international human rights law.”
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