Pregnant Sudanese woman sentenced to death for becoming Christian

A 27-year-old woman, who is eight months pregnant, has been sentenced to death in Sudan for converting to Christianity from Islam, sparking protests in a country already riddled with social strife.

Mariam Yahya Ibrahim had been ordered to give up her newly-adopted Christian faith by Thursday and return to Islam.

Judge Abbas Khalifa asked Ibrahim whether she agreed to return to Islam. After she said, “I am a Christian,” a charge of apostasy was declared and the death sentence was handed down, according to judicial sources, quoted by Reuters.

“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 reported.

The woman had also been charged with adultery for marrying a Christian man.

Amnesty International immediately condemned the sentence, calling it “abhorrent.” The organisation said the woman was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother’s religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood.
Outside the courthouse, around 50 people protested the decision, holding placards that read “Freedom of Religion.”

Islamists celebrated the court decision, chanting “God is Great.”

Sudanese activists condemned the decision and called on the Sudanese government to uphold the freedom of belief for all people.

“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.

The embassies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands released a common statement expressing “deep concern” about the court proceeding, urging the North African country of almost 31 million people to respect the religious freedom of its citizens, AFP reported.

The high-profile case comes at a time of severe economic and political hardship for the government of President Omar Hassan Bashir, which suffered a major setback in 2011 when South Sudan, the country’s main oil supplier, seceded and formed its own sovereign state.

Amid the grinding economic downturn, Bashir ordered stringent austerity measures that prompted violent protests that led to the deaths of dozens of people.
Pregnant Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death

SUDAN Tribune

May 5, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese court has sentenced a heavily pregnant Christian woman to death by hanging and 100 lashes after convicting her on charges of apostasy and adultery.

A Khartoum court handed down the sentence on Thursday morning (local time) after 27-year-old Meriam Yehya Ibrahim refused to recant her faith.

Ibrahim, who is eight months pregnant with her second child, was convicted of adultery and apostasy on 11 May and given three days by the court to renounce her religion.

Amnesty International said Ibrahim was arrested and charged with adultery in August 2013 after a family member reportedly claimed that she was committing adultery because of her marriage to a Christian South Sudanese man.

Under Sudan’s Islamic Shari’a law, a Muslim woman is not permitted to marry a non-Muslim man, thus any such marriage is considered adulterous. The court later added the charge of apostasy when Ibrahim, who was raised an Orthodox Christian, asserted that she was not a Muslim.

Amnesty International has described the sentence as “truly abhorrent”.

It said Ibrahim is a prisoner of conscience, convicted solely because of her religious beliefs and identity and should be released immediately.

“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,” Manar Idriss, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, said in a statement following the sentencing.

“Adultery and apostasy are acts which should not be considered crimes at all. It is flagrant breach of international human rights law,” he added.

According to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), Ibrahim was born in Gedarif state, and raised solely by her Christian Ethiopian Orthodox mother as her Muslim Sudanese father was entirely absent from her upbringing.

In 2012, she married Dr Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese born US citizen, in Khartoum, with whom she has a 20-month-year-old son.

SIHA said it had been informed by Ibrahim’s legal consul that the US embassy in Khartoum has so far been unable to arrange a DNA test, required to support her husband’s claim for custody of their son, who is currently incarcerated with his mother.

It remains unclear what support options will be available to the US embassy for the family even in the event that a DNA test demonstrates the paternity of the child, as Sudanese authorities are likely to refuse the father’s claim for custody given he is not a Muslim.

EU representatives in Khartoum said they had been following the case closely due to its implications for human rights and religious tolerance in the country.

In a brief statement on Tuesday, European diplomats underlined Sudan’s obligation under international law to defend and promote the freedom of religion.

The US, UK, Canadian and Dutch embassies in Khartoum also issued a joint statement prior to Ibrahim’s sentencing expressing their deep concern over the court’s ruling and calling for compassion.

However, according to SIHA said Sudan’s legal system has a history of singling out women, ethnic minorities and activists with punishments often disproportionate to the alleged crimes committed.

“The fact that Meriam stands to lose her life over specious charges makes this case of utmost urgency and demands a unified advocacy and outreach efforts by human rights defenders across the globe,” it said.

While Amnesty has documented a number of cases in recent years of flogging sentences carried out in Sudan, there have been no known executions for apostasy since the 1991 Sudanese Criminal Code was enacted, although many have had their charges dropped or convictions overturned after recanting their faith.

Sudan’s judicial system came under scrutiny earlier this year after an 18-year-old Ethiopian woman, who was gang raped by seven men in Omdurman when she was three months pregnant, was charged with adultery and prostitution.

Source: (ST)

CNN News:
(CNN) — Hours after a Sudanese court sentenced his pregnant wife to death when she refused to recant her Christian faith, her husband told CNN he feels helpless.

“I’m so frustrated. I don’t know what to do,” Daniel Wani told CNN on Thursday. “I’m just praying.”

This week a Khartoum court convicted his wife, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith.

Ibrahim is Christian, her husband said. But the court considers her to be Muslim.

The court also convicted her of adultery and sentenced her to 100 lashes because her marriage to a Christian man is considered void under Sharia law.

The court gave her until Thursday to recant her Christian faith — something she refused to do, according to her lawyer.

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, a sheikh told the court “how dangerous a crime like this is to Islam and the Islamic community,” said attorney Mohamed Jar Elnabi, who’s representing Ibrahim.

“I am a Christian,” Ibrahim fired back, “and I will remain a Christian.”

Her legal team says it plans to appeal the verdict, which drew swift condemnation from human rights organizations around the world.

In the meantime, Ibrahim, who is eight months’ pregnant, remains in prison with her 20-month-old son.

“She is very strong and very firm. She is very clear that she is a Christian and that she will get out one day,” Elnabi told CNN from Sudan.

Ibrahim was born to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left when she was 6 years old, and Ibrahim was raised by her mother as a Christian.

However, because her father was Muslim, the courts considered her to be the same, which would mean her marriage to a non-Muslim man is void.

The case, her lawyer said, started after Ibrahim’s brother filed a complaint against her, alleging that she had gone missing for several years and that her family was shocked to find she had married a Christian man.

A family divided

The court’s ruling leaves a family divided, with Ibrahim behind bars and her husband struggling to survive, Elnabi said.

Police blocked Wani from entering the courtroom on Thursday, Elnabi said. Lawyers appealed to the judge, but he refused, Elnabi said.

Wani uses a wheelchair and “totally depends on her for all details of his life,” Elnabi said.

“He cannot live without her,” said the lawyer.

The couple’s son is having a difficult time in prison.

“He is very affected from being trapped inside a prison from such a young age,” Elnabi said. “He is always getting sick due to lack of hygiene and bugs.”

Ibrahim is having a difficult pregnancy, the lawyer said. A request to send her to a private hospital was denied “due to security measures.”

There also is the question of the timing of a potential execution.

In past cases involving pregnant or nursing women, the Sudanese government waited until the mother weaned her child before executing any sentence, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide spokeswoman Kiri Kankhwende.

Rights groups, governments ask for compassion

Amnesty International describes Ibrahim as a prisoner of conscience.

“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,” Manar Idriss, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, said in a statement.

“‘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,” the researcher said.

Katherine Perks with the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies said the verdict goes against Sudan’s “own Constitution and commitments made under regional and international law.”

“Meriam has been convicted solely on account of her religious convictions and personal status,” she said.

Foreign embassies in Khartoum are urging the government there to reverse course.

“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 embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Netherlands said in a statement.

“We further urge Sudanese legal authorities to approach Ms. Meriam’s case with justice and compassion that is in keeping with the values of the Sudanese people,” it read.

‘Egregious violations of freedom of religion’

Attempts to contact Sudan’s justice minister and foreign affairs minister about the Ibrahim case were unsuccessful.

Sudan is one of the most difficult countries in the world to be a Christian, according to international religious freedom monitors.

Under President Omar al-Bashir, the African nation “continues to engage in systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its 2014 report.

The country imposes Sharia law on Muslims and non-Muslims alike and punishes acts of “indecency” and “immorality” by floggings and amputations, the commission said.

“Conversion from Islam is a crime punishable by death, suspected converts to Christianity face societal pressures, and government security personnel intimidate and sometimes torture those suspected of conversion,” said the commission, whose members are appointed by Congress and the president.

The 8 worst places in the world to be religious

The Sudanese government has arrested Christians for spreading their faith, razed Christian churches and confiscated Christians’ property, the commission said.

Since 1999, the U.S. State Department has called Sudan one of the worst offenders of religious rights, counting it among eight “countries of particular concern.”

“The government at times enforced laws against blasphemy and defaming Islam,” the State Department said in its most recent report on religious freedom, from 2012.

The State Department’s other countries of concern, all of which impose strict penalties on Christians or other faiths, are: Myanmar (also known as Burma), China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

Among all religious groups, Christians are the most likely to be persecuted worldwide, according to a 2014 report by the Pew Research Center.

Between June 2006 and December 2012, Christians were harassed by governments in 151 countries, Pew reported. Islam was second, with 135 countries. Together, Christians and Muslims make up half of the world’s population, Pew noted.

Lawyer says he’s gotten a death threat

Elnabi says he got a death threat a day before the controversial court hearing, with an anonymous caller telling him to pull out of representing Ibrahim or risk attack.

“I feel very scared,” he said. “Since yesterday, I live in fear if I just hear a door open or a strange sound in the street.”

Still, the lawyer said he’ll continue representing Ibrahim.

“I could never leave the case. This is a matter of belief and principles,” he said. “I must help someone who is in need, even if it will cost me my life.”

Source: CNN and others