Sudan Authorites To Free Meriam Ibrahim, Who Is On Death Row

An official of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry informed that a woman and a mother of the newly-born daughter, sentenced to death by hanging for abandoning Islam, would be freed in the coming few days.

* Meriam Ibrahim and Daniel Wani Wedding Photo, 2011.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, who gave birth to her second child being in custody on May 28, 2014, Wednesday, will not be executed because, according to the under-secretary of the ministry, Abdullahi Alzareg, Sudan was a country committed to protecting the women and that guaranteed freedom of religion.
Khartoum has bowed to pressure put up by the U.K., other Western countries. Previously, the international community condemned the death penalty for Meriam, threatened to stop financial aid to Sudan, in case the judgement would not be reconsidered.

The 27-year-old woman, whose father was a Muslim, was raised as an Orthodox Christian. She got married to a US citizen born in South Sudan, Daniel Wani, in 2011, according to Christian traditions.

However, according to a Sudanese court, Ms Ibrahim must be regarded as a Muslim, as Islam had been the faith of her father. The court paid no attention to the fact that Meriam’s mother was a Christian and that the Muslim father was absent during convict’s childhood.

The court had annulled her Christian marriage and sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because the union was not considered valid under Islamic law.

The woman, however, refused to renounce her Christianity and, thereby, was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy. The court further delayed the execution for two years, in order to allow Ms Ibrahim to give birth and to nurse the baby.

The Islamic law, Shari’a, is in force in Sudan since 1980s.
The case sparked heated debates on the issue of converting from one religion into another, and whether abandoning the Islamic faith should be punished.