Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for "Apostasy"!

Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for "Apostasy"!


05-15-2014, 08:51 PM


  » http://sudaneseonline.com/cgi-bin/esdb/2bb.cgi?seq=msg&board=12&msg=1400187060&rn=0


Post: #1
Title: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for "Apostasy"!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 08:51 PM

Pregnant Woman in Sudan Could Be Executed for ‘Apostasy‘

Whipped for ‘Adultery’ Christian accused of leaving Islam because her father was Muslim. By Our Sudan Correspondent

JUBA, South Sudan, April 28, 2014, (Morning Star News) – A pregnant woman in Khartoum, Sudan raised as a Christian faces the death penalty for “leaving Islam” because her father was Muslim, sources said.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, 27, and her Christian husband also have a toddler son. As marriage to a Christian man is prohibited for a Muslim woman in Sudan, Ibrahim also could be given 100 lashes for “adultery,” the sources said. If convicted of “apostasy” and “adultery,” the whipping and execution would be administered soon after giving birth to her second child, due next month, according to a rights worker for Justice Center Sudan in Khartoum.

“We are fighting for Meriam’s life, freedom, and fair treatment – according to the law, if she had been a Muslim she should be killed soon after she gives birth to her child,” said the rights worker, whose identity was withheld for security reasons.

Married to a South Sudanese Christian who obtained U.S. citizenship several years ago, Ibrahim’s nightmare has included denial of bail, insufficient medical care for both her and her unborn child, beatings in prison and a U.S. Embassy that has offered little help, sources said.

“Meriam needs treatment every month to keep the unborn baby still in the mother’s womb, but no medical help has been allowed,” her husband, Daniel Wani, reported to Justice Center Sudan. “They are denying my wife her rights to fair treatment and my rights to visit and see my son.”

Their 20-month-old son, Martin Wani, is staying in prison with his mother, as Sudanese authorities have prohibited the boy’s father from caring for him because he is a Christian. Ibrahim has been incarcerated since February.

Justice Center Sudan is fighting the charges of apostasy and adultery based on constitutional rights to equality and freedom of religion. The center says constitutional rights should outweigh sharia (Islamic law). The Sudanese constitution stipulates Islamic law as a source of legislation, however, and since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has vowed to make Sudan a more strictly Islamic country.

Rights workers are trying to pressure the government to give Ibrahim, a medical doctor who graduated from Khartoum University, fair treatment in prison and allow the baby to be with his father.

Accusing Wani of converting a Muslim woman to another religion and marrying her – although Sudanese law does not explicitly ban proselytism – authorities have taken Wani’s passport and forbidden him to travel.

Sudan’s notorious Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif in Khartoum North charged Ibrahim with apostasy and adultery on March 4, sources told Morning Star News. No one has been executed for apostasy in Sudan since the Sudan Criminal Code of 1991 made it punishable by the death penalty.

The couple also faces cancellation of their marriage, rights workers said.

“According to Islamic laws, if a Muslim woman gets married to a non-Muslim man, then their marriage is not acknowledged legally,” one rights worker said. “She is then committing adultery, and her children are not recognized by law as children of legal marriage. That is why she is facing the charges.”

Khartoum state’s “public order” laws are based largely on strict Islamic law and give Public Order Police and judges wide latitude in arresting and sentencing suspects.

Ibrahim was born in a small town in western Sudan to an Ethiopian Orthodox mother and a Muslim Sudanese father. Her father disappeared from her life when she was 6 years old, and her Ethiopian Orthodox mother raised her in the Christian faith, sources said.

When life became hard for her and her mother, they decided to move to Khartoum in search of better school opportunities for Ibrahim and employment for her mother, sources said. Finding refuge in a small neighborhood in Khartoum, they connected with a small church, and their lives moved on, according to Justice Center Sudan.

Ibrahim progressed in school and graduated from the prestigious School of Medicine at Khartoum University. Her mother died in 2011, leaving Ibrahim with a small but supportive community. She and Wani met at her church when he was visiting Khartoum from the United States; they soon fell in love and were married in a small church ceremony in Khartoum in 2012, Wani said.

Last year someone who said he was a relative of Ibrahim opened a case against them in Halat Kuku Court of Khartoum North for alleged “adultery” under article 146 of the Sudan Criminal Code because of her marriage to a Christian, rights workers said. Wani was accused of proselytizing a Muslim, and eventually authorities added the apostasy charge to Ibrahim.

Three witnesses from western Sudan came to Khartoum in March of this year to testify of Ibrahim’s lifelong Christian faith, they said.

“I am a Christian,” Ibrahim told the court in Khartoum on March 4, having provided her marriage certificate showing that she was a Christian and that the wedding ceremony was conducted in a Christian chapel in Khartoum in 2012.

Though no one has been executed for apostasy in Sudan since the 1991 law took effect, courts have forced people accused of leaving Islam to renounce their faiths.

While in jail Ibrahim has been abused physically and emotionally, according to her husband. Muslim scholars have been visiting her, telling her to “turn back” to the religion of her father, but she has refused, he said.

One of the prison guards, Kawther Hassen, has mistreated Ibrahim and not allowed visitations or medical help. Her husband told Morning Star News that that a Muslim woman in the jail has incited other Muslims to make life difficult for Ibrahim.

“She is psychologically tired,” Wani said. “My wife was never a Muslim. As an American citizen, I ask the people and government of the USA to help me.”

The couple’s toddler boy is a U.S. citizen by virtue of his father’s U.S. citizenship, but Wani said U.S. Embassy officials in Khartoum have told him he must prove he is the father with a DNA test before they would try to help.

“I will have to take a DNA sample in Khartoum, then send it to the USA for testing,” Wani said. “I have provided wedding documents and the baby’s birth certificate, and doors were closed on his face.”

Wani told Morning Star News that when he called the U.S. Embassy on April 9, a representative in Khartoum told him they did not care about the case.

“I have tried to apply for papers to travel to the USA with my wife and child, but the American Embassy in Sudan did not help me,” Wani said. “My son is an American citizen living in a difficult situation in prison.”

U.S. Embassy personnel declined to speak about the matter to Morning Star News.


http://pamelageller.com/2014/04/pregnant-woma...-father-muslim.html/

Post: #2
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:10 PM
Parent: #1




Dr. Merriam Y. I. Ishag in her statement before the court said "I was born and raised Christian, I never committed apostasy".

Post: #3
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:17 PM
Parent: #2

BBC News Africa: Sudan woman faces death for apostasy



A Sudanese court has sentenced a woman to hang for apostasy - the abandonment of her religious faith - after she married a Christian man.

Amnesty International condemned the sentence, handed down by a judge in Khartoum, as "appalling and abhorrent".

Local media report the sentence on the woman, who is pregnant, would not be carried out for two years after she had given birth.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population, which is governed by Islamic law.

"We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death," the judge told the woman, AFP reports.

Western embassies and rights groups had urged Sudan to respect the right of the pregnant woman to choose her religion.

The judge also sentenced the woman to 100 lashes after convicting her of adultery - because her marriage to a Christian man was not valid under Islamic law.

This will reportedly be carried out when she has recovered from giving birth.

Earlier in the hearing, an Islamic cleric spoke with her in a caged dock for about 30 minutes, AFP reports.

Then she calmly told the judge: "I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy."

Rival protesters
Amnesty International said the woman, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother's religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood.

In court, the judge addressed her by her Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.

She was convicted of adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan was void under Sudan's version of Islamic law, which says Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslims.

The woman was originally sentenced to death on Sunday but given until Thursday to return to Islam.
There were small groups of protesters outside the court - both her supporters and those who back the punishment.

About 50 people chanting "No to executing Meriam" were confronted by a smaller group who supported the verdict, but there was no violence.

Amnesty's Sudan researcher Manar Idriss condemned the punishments, saying apostasy and adultery should not be considered crimes.

"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," he said.

The BBC's Osman Mohamed, in Khartoum, says death sentences are rarely carried out in Sudan.

Her lawyers plan an appeal to a higher court to get the sentence overturned.
On Tuesday, the embassies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands issued a joint statement expressing "deep concern" about the case and urging Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, AFP says.

The woman was arrested and charged with adultery in August 2013, and the court added the charge of apostasy in February 2014 when she said she was a Christian and not a Muslim, Amnesty said.

The group called for her immediate release.

She is said to be eight months' pregnant.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064

Post: #4
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:19 PM
Parent: #3

Farouk Chothia
BBC Africa
There is a long-running debate in Islam over whether apostasy is a crime.

Some liberal scholars hold the view that it is not - and back up their argument by citing the Koranic verse which states: "There shall be no compulsion in religion."

Others say apostasy is tantamount to treason - and refer to what Prophet Muhammad said: "It is not permissible to spill the blood of a Muslim except in three [instances]: A life for a life; a married person who commits adultery; and one who forsakes his religion and separates from the community."

The latter is the dominant view in conservative Muslim states such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and the cause of much religious tension.

Post: #5
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:24 PM
Parent: #4



Part of the protest against the death sentence..

Post: #6
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:31 PM
Parent: #5

All Men and Women are born free, so Merriam have the right to convert to Christianity or any other beliefs she may choose.

Post: #7
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:35 PM
Parent: #6

The Telegraph News:

Pregnant woman faces death in Sudan for apostasy
Christian woman sentenced to death for refusing to convert to Islam after being raised as a Christian



A Christian doctor has been sentenced to hang for apostasy, or the abandonment of religion, by a court in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, who was born to a Muslim father but brought up a Christian by her mother, was convicted on Sunday and given three days to recant her faith or face a possible death sentence.
“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told Mrs Ibrahim, addressing her by her father’s name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.
Mrs Ibrahim also faces a sentence of flogging for adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan is considered void under Islamic law. She will be given 100 lashes. Because her father was Muslim, she was considered by the court to be the same.
Mrs Ibrahim told the judge: “I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.”
Her lawyer said that she intended to appeal against the decision.
Amnesty International said Mrs Ibrahim was eight months pregnant and in detention with her 20-month-old son. A spokesman said: “The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is abhorrent and should never be even considered.”
The sentence has been condemned by the international community. In a joint statement, the embassies of Britain, the United States, Canada and the Netherlands expressed “deep concern” over her case.
“We call upon the government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, including one’s right to change one’s faith or beliefs,” they said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/afr...an-for-apostasy.html

Post: #8
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:42 PM
Parent: #7

Mail Online News:

Sudanese woman, 27, who is a doctor and eight months PREGNANT to be flogged to death for the 'crime' of marrying a Christian man

A Sudanese court gave a 27-year-old woman who is eight-months pregnant with her second child, until Thursday to abandon her newly adopted Christian faith and return to Islam or face a death sentence.
Mariam Yahya Ibrahim was charged with apostasy as well as adultery for marrying a Christian man, something prohibited for Muslim women to do and which makes the marriage void.
The final ruling will be announced on later today. Ibrahim's case was the first of its kind to be heard in Sudan.
On February 7, 2014, Meriam was arrested, with her 20-month-old son, and put in a women’s prison. She had not been charged nor did she receive a fair trial.
A relative had turned her in to the police for marrying a Christian. According to the Sudan’s Public Order Criminal Code.
Meriam is a Muslim by default because she was born in Sudan.

Thus, her marriage to a Christian is a criminal act.
On March 4th, Meriam was charged with adultery and apostasy.
The adultery charge came with a punishment of 100 lashes.
The apostasy charge came with a punishment of death. As it stands, Meriam will be put to death following the birth of her second child.

Meriam’s husband, Daniel, is not allowed to care for their child, Martin, because he is a Christian. Therefore, Martin, almost two years old, is in prison with his mother. Daniel is not allowed to visit or see his son.
Young Sudanese university students have mounted a series of protests near Khartoum University in recent weeks asking for an end to human rights abuses, more freedoms and better social and economic conditions.
The authorities decided on Sunday to close the university indefinitely.

Western embassies and Sudanese activists sharply condemned the accusations and called on the Sudanese Islamist-led government to respect freedom of faith.

'The details of this case expose the regime's blatant interference in the personal life of Sudanese citizens,' Sudan Change Now Movement, a youth group, said in a statement.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government is facing a huge economic and political challenge after the 2011 secession of South Sudan, which was Sudan's main source of oil.
A decision by Bashir last year to cut subsidies and impose austerity measures prompted violent protests in which dozens were killed and hundreds were injured.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-26288...eath-unless-she.html

Post: #9
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for Apostasy!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:45 PM
Parent: #8

ABC News:
Sudanese Woman Sentenced to Death for Apostasy

KHARTOUM, Sudan May 15, 2014 (AP)
By MOHAMMED SAEED and HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press
Associated Press

A pregnant Sudanese woman who married a Christian man was sentenced to death Thursday after she refused to recant her Christian faith, her lawyer said.

Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim but mother was an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia, was convicted of "apostasy" on Sunday and given four days to repent and escape death, said lawyer Al-Shareef Ali al-Shareef Mohammed.

The 26 year old, who is eight months pregnant, was sentenced after that grace period expired, Mohammed said.

Amnesty International immediately condemned the sentence, calling it "abhorrent." The U.S. State Department said it was "deeply disturbed" by the sentencing and called on the government to respect the right to freedom of religion.

Mohammed, the lawyer, called the conviction rushed and legally flawed since the judge refused to hear key defense witnesses and ignored constitutional provisions on freedom of worship and equality among citizens.

Ibrahim and Wani married in a formal church ceremony in 2011 and have a son, 18-month-old Martin, who is with her in jail. The couple runs several businesses, including a farm, south of Khartoum.

Sudan's penal code criminalizes the conversion of Muslims into other religions, which is punishable by death.

As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their faith. By law, children must follow their father's religion.

Sudan introduced Islamic Shariah laws in the early 1980s under the rule of autocrat Jaafar Nimeiri, a move that contributed to the resumption of an insurgency in the mostly animist and Christian south of Sudan. An earlier round of civil war lasted 17 years and ended in 1972. The south seceded in 2011 to become the world's newest nation, South Sudan.

Sudanese President Omar Bashir, an Islamist who seized power in a 1989 military coup, says his country will implement Islam more strictly now that the non-Muslim south is gone.

A number of Sudanese have been convicted of apostasy in recent years, but they all escaped execution by recanting their new faith. Religious thinker and politician Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, a critic of Nimeiri and his interpretation of Shariah, was sentenced to death after his conviction of apostasy. He was executed in 1985 at the age of 76.

Mohammed said he intends to appeal Ibrahim's conviction.

"The judge has exceeded his mandate when he ruled that Meriam's marriage was void because her husband was out of her faith," Mohammed told The Associated Press. "He was thinking more of Islamic Shariah laws than of the country's laws and its constitution."

He said Ibrahim's Muslim father left her mother when she was a child and her mother raised her as a Christian.

The court in the capital, Khartoum, also ordered that Ibrahim be given 100 lashes for having what it considers sexual relations with her husband, Daniel Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan who has U.S. citizenship, according to the lawyer and judicial officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Wani was acquitted of a charge of harboring an apostate, according to another defense lawyer, Eman Abdul-Rahim.

Wani fled to the United States as a child to escape the civil war in southern Sudan but later returned, she said.

Amnesty called the sentence a "flagrant breach of international human rights law."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory...th-apostasy-23729074

Post: #10
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:49 PM
Parent: #1

National Post:
Sudan court sentences eight months pregnant woman to death for ‘apostasy,’ marrying a Christian

A Sudanese court sentenced a pregnant woman to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith in favour of Islam, a defence lawyer said.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Sudanese Christian doctor who’s eight months pregnant, will receive 100 lashes and be executed by hanging, Haram Osman Ahmed, a member of her legal team, said by phone on Thursday from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. The verdict will be appealed within 15 days, she said. Under Sudanese law, execution has to be carried out after a convicted woman gives birth, Ahmed said.

Ibrahim was convicted of apostasy and adultery on May 11 in a case that’s drawn criticism from the U.S. and U.K. The court had given her three days to recant her faith.

Mother to a 20-month-old son, Ibrahim says she was raised as a Christian, her mother’s religion, because her father, a Muslim, was absent during her childhood, according to Amnesty International. She was arrested and charged with adultery in August after a family member reportedly told Sudanese authorities of her marriage to a South Sudanese Christian.

Under Sudan’s interpretation of Islamic law, marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man isn’t permitted, with any such union considered adultery, according to Amnesty. An apostasy charge was added in February when Ibrahim said she was Christian, not Muslim.

Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman’s mobile phone didn’t connect when Bloomberg News called seeking comment.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/15/sudan...arrying-a-christian/

Post: #11
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 09:59 PM
Parent: #10

The Independent:
Global outcry as Sudanese woman sentenced to death for renouncing Islam

A heavily pregnant young woman has been sentenced to death in Sudan for renouncing Islam and marrying a Christian man, in a case which has attracted global condemnation.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, was told by a court in Khartoum she would be hanged for committing apostasy by leaving Islam and becoming a Christian. She was also sentenced to 100 lashes for marrying a non-Muslim, which constitutes adultery under Sudanese law.

Mrs Ibrahim is eight months pregnant and has been held since February in Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison, north of Khartoum, with her 18-month-old son Martin. On Sunday she was told that she had three days to recant her faith or face death, but appearing in court yesterday she refused, saying she had always been a Christian.
An Islamic cleric spoke to Mrs Ibrahim in the dock for half an hour, but afterwards she told judge Abbas al Khalifa: “I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.”

The judge, who addressed Mrs Ibrahim by her Muslim name Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah throughout, reportedly replied: “We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death.”

Her family are extremely worried about her welfare, saying she is not being given access to medical treatment in jail. One relative said: “We are concerned for her wellbeing. It is not very safe for her to be in the prison with dangerous criminals.”

According to human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mrs Ibrahim was born in western Sudan to Muslim father and a Christian mother. Her father left when she was six, so her mother raised her as a Christian. She married Daniel Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan who has US citizenship, in 2011.

The charity added that three witnesses from western Sudan had travelled to the hearing to testify that Mrs Ibrahim had always been a Christian, but were prevented from giving evidence.

It is understood that the death sentence will not be enacted for two years after she has given birth, but that the punishment of 100 lashes could be carried out as soon as her baby is born. Mrs Ibrahim’s lawyers are intending to launch an appeal, which could take several months.

Governments across the world condemned the move. Mark Simmonds, the UK’s Minister for Africa, said he was “truly appalled” at the outcome of the case. “This barbaric sentence highlights the stark divide between the practices of the Sudanese courts and the country’s international human rights obligations,” he said.

“The UK opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and urges the Government of Sudan to join what is a clear global trend to abolition.”

Ahead of the sentencing, the British embassy in Khartoum issued a joint statement with the US, Canada and the Netherlands expressing its “deep concern” about the case.

“We call upon the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, including one’s right to change one’s faith or beliefs, a right which is enshrined in international human rights law as well as in Sudan’s own 2005 Interim Constitution,” the statement said.

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.”

Sudan has a majority Muslim population and has been governed by Islamic law since 1983, but extreme punishments other than flogging are rare. Apostasy, the crime of abandoning or criticising Islam, is punishable by death in several Muslim-majority countries.

Ahmed Bilal Osman, Sudan’s Information minister, told the AFP news agency: “It’s not only Sudan. In Saudi Arabia, in all the Muslim countries, it is not allowed at all for a Muslim to change his religion.”

If the death sentence is carried out, Mrs Ibrahim will become the first person to be executed for apostasy under the country’s 1991 penal code.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/afric...g-islam-9380447.html

Post: #12
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 10:19 PM
Parent: #11

The Guardian:

Sudanese woman who married a non-Muslim sentenced to death
Associated Press in Khartoum
theguardian.com, Thursday 15 May 2014 10.10 EDT


A Sudanese doctor who married a Christian man and who was convicted earlier this week on charges of apostasy was sentenced to death on Thursday, judicial officials said.

According to the Sudanese officials, 26-year-old Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim, was convicted on Sunday and given four days to repent and escape death. She was sentenced after that grace period expired, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The sentencing drew condemnation from western embassies in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and international rights groups, including Amnesty International.

The court in Khartoum also ordered Ibrahim be given 100 lashes for committing zina – an Arabic word for illegitimate ####### – for having sexual relations with a non-Muslim man.

The couple married in 2011 and have a child, born 18 months ago. Sudanese law does not recognise Ibrahim's marriage to a non-Muslim.

Ibrahim can appeal against her death sentence as well as the 100 lashes.

As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their faith. By law, children must follow their father's religion.

Amnesty International said Ibrahim's conviction and death sentence were "truly abhorrent".

"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," the London-based rights group said. "Adultery and apostasy are acts which should not be considered crimes at all."

The group also called for Ibrahim's immediate and unconditional release.

Sudan introduced Islamic sharia laws in the early 1980s, a move that contributed to the resumption of an insurgency in the mostly animist and Christian south of Sudan. An earlier round of civil war lasted 17 years and ended in 1972. The south seceded in 2011 to become the world's newest nation, South Sudan.

Sudan's current ruler, Omar al-Bashir, is an Islamist who seized power in a 1989 coup.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/15/...-apostasy?CMP=twt_gu

Post: #13
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 10:24 PM
Parent: #12

U.S State Department: May 15th, 2014



Apostasy Case


Press Statement
Marie Harf
Deputy Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 15, 2014

We are deeply disturbed over the sentencing today of Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag to death by hanging for apostasy. We are also deeply concerned by the flogging sentence for adultery. We understand that the court sentence can be appealed.

We continue to call upon the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, a right which is enshrined in Sudan’s own 2005 Interim Constitution as well as international human rights law.

We call on the Sudanese legal authorities to approach this case with the compassion that is in keeping with the values of the Sudanese people

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/05/226201.htm

Post: #14
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 10:30 PM
Parent: #13

Relevant Magazine:

A Christian Woman in Sudan Has Been Sentenced to Death For Her Beliefs

Horrid news out of Sudan, where a 27-year-old woman named Meriam Yehya Ibrahim has been sentenced to die for being a Christian. Amnesty International says the woman was raised as a Christian by her mother, but since her father (who left when she was 6) is a Muslim, she is considered a Muslim under Sharia law, making her Christian marriage void. That means the court is trying her as both an adulteress and an apostate, the former of which carries the penalty of a hundred lashes; the second, death. Ibrahim has been sentenced to both.

The sentence has raised a global outcry, including this statement from Amnesty International's Sudan researcher Manar Idriss:

"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered ...'Adultery' and 'apostasy' are acts which should not be considered crimes at all, let alone meet the international standard of 'most serious crimes' in relation to the death penalty. It is a flagrant breach of international human rights law."
Ibrahim is eight months pregnant, and is currently being held in custody with her 20-month-old son ...
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/christ...ed-death-her-beliefs

Post: #15
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 10:37 PM
Parent: #14

Human Rights Watch:

Dispatches: Sudanese Judge Sentences Pregnant Woman to Death and Whipping

May 15th, 2014
By: Jehanne Henry


Today, a judge in Khartoum sentenced a pregnant 27 year old, Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, to death for the crime of “apostasy,” and to 100 lashings for “adultery.” These convictions and harsh sentences fly in the face of Sudanese and international law, and point to Sudan’s continuing discrimination against religious minorities and women’s rights.

Heavily pregnant and the mother of a 2 year old, Mariam has been in prison, with her young son, for months. She was initially accused of adultery because she is married to a non-Muslim of South Sudanese origin – a marriage the court did not recognize. The court added the apostasy charge after Mariam told the court she is Christian, according to reports by rights groups and lawyers involved in the case.

Both convictions violate the Sudanese constitution and international law. Sudan’s bill of rights protects freedom of religion, and Sudan has ratified numerous African and international treaties that protect privacy and absolutely prohibit corporal punishment and the use of the death penalty in these contexts.

The apostasy charge is especially shocking. Under article 126 of Sudan’s criminal code, a Muslim who renounces Islam is guilty of apostasy, punishable by death unless he or she recants within three days. Mariam today told the court she is Christian and not guilty.

While this is not the first time authorities have brought apostasy charges in recent years, the last known execution was in 1985, when Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, a renowned Islamist reformer and leader of the Republican Brothers, was executed for his political and religious beliefs.

The adultery charge, far more commonplace, is a sober reminder of the discrimination Sudanese women and girls face on a near-daily basis. Authorities routinely impose harsh corporal punishments – including lashing and even stoning– disproportionately on women and girls for private, personal decisions that should never be criminalized in the first place. These “crimes” include choices relating to personal relationships and sexuality, and also dress code choices, like wearing trousers.

This case projects an image of Sudan whose authorities practice draconian intolerance, but belies the diversity and tolerance that actually exists within Sudanese society itself.

The government should promptly denounce these unconstitutional penalties and move to repeal adultery and apostasy charges from the criminal code. The prosecution and courts should ensure these sentences are quashed on appeal, and instruct that Mariam is released from prison.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/15/dispatches...n-death-and-whipping

Post: #16
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: Ahmed Alim
Date: 05-15-2014, 11:11 PM
Parent: #15

CNN TV:

http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/201...l-wani-intv.cnn.html

Post: #17
Title: Re: Pregnant Woman in Sudan to Be Executed for andquot;Apostasyandquot;!
Author: إبراهيم عبد العزيز عثمان
Date: 05-16-2014, 02:46 PM
Parent: #16

Thank you for bringing the case to our attention!

As an ordinary muslim, I would like to comment on this issue though I feel the whole truth about the matter is unearthed yet. Any judgement in Islam should be carried in an islamic judiciary system and after a full enquiry about the case. I believe these two requirements had never been fulfilled from those judges who preside over the case.

First, the justice system in Sudan is not islamic. Therefore, you cannot try certain cases under islamic law while ignoring other cases of corruption to be dealt otherwise. Since the whole judiciary body is still under the civil law, then this case should dealt with under the prevailing current civil laws of the country. The freedom of faith and choice is well outlined in these laws. Therefore, this lady has the feedom to practice and follow her faith wahtever that might be and she has the right to marry whoever she agrees to.

Second, from what I gathered so far from different sources, there are many conflicting outcomes in the case that should be searched and taken into consideration before laying judgement on any individual. If she was raised by an Ethiopian christian mother as some sources claim! That should be questioned and scrutinized as well. It is a very convincing piece of evidence that would explain her behaviour! Some sources mentioned that she is still a muslim and practice her prayers and go to the mosque. Even if she is a muslim or a christian or in the transitional period between the two faiths, this should be fully and carefully investigated. I think her mental being and behaviour might be the factor in her living in this middle ground stage. All laws in the world whether civil or religious dictate full invistigation and cosideration of all the facts that justify her bewilderments which should be an evidence for her setting her free.

Third, even under islamic law, the sentence of a death penalty is not advised unless if all other options and facts were depleted. Moreover, some decent Muslim scholars claim there are no such penalty in the Sharia law for these cases ! I am not quite versant with the Sharia law but I feel confidently, it is a very hasty political judgement that was followed.

It is quite evident that the handling of the case was exagerated due to lack of comperhensive invesitations by a government that claims to be islamic, while it is not! In such situations, major facts were completely absent and justice can never be served in this double standard judiciary system. I hope they should refrain from executing her because she has every right for a free bardon.