adminKHARTOUM. — Sudanese jailers removed the chains from a Christian woman, sentenced to death for apostasy, after she gave birth in prison last month, one of her lawyers said yesterday.The case of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag sparked an outcry from Western governments and rights groups after a judge sentenced her on May 15 to hang.
Born to a Muslim father, she was convicted under Islamic Sharia Law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
Twelve days after the verdict, Ishag gave birth to a daughter at the women’s prison in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman.
“They removed the chains after she delivered,” one of her lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa said.
“This is on order by the doctor.”
Sudanese law requires anyone sentenced to death to be shackled but Mustafa said “I think they will not put it again.”
Following the delivery, Ishag was moved to the prison clinic from a cell which she shared with other women, the lawyer said.
“After she gave birth, the conditions got better,” he said, but “a prison is a prison.”
Mustafa and four other human rights lawyers handling her case for free have appealed the verdict.
“We’re still waiting,” and there is no word on when the higher court’s decision may come, Mustafa said.
Her husband Daniel Wani says he hopes international outcry will lead to conviction of his wife Meriam Ibrahim being overturned Wani, a US citizen since 2005, said mounting international pressure could have a significant impact on the Sudanese authorities, and he felt overwhelmed by “the way people have come together around the world” to protest against his wife’s sentence.
“I want to thank everyone for this stand. It’s looking like it had an effect. Perhaps it will result in the judgment being overturned,” he said.Ibrahim told a court in Khartoum that she had been brought up as a Christian, and refused to renounce her faith.
She and Wani married in 2011, but the court ruled that the union was invalid and that Ibrahim was guilty of adultery.
Ibrahim, a graduate of Sudan University’s school of medicine, had been told that her death sentence will be deferred for two years to allow her to nurse her baby. — AFP.
Online Reporter