WUNRN
SUDAN - MERIAM IBRAHIM, FREED FROM
DEATH SENTENCE, NOW DETAINED BY SECURITY AGENTS AT AIRPORT
Meriam Ibrahim with her husband Daniel Wani (L), children and legal team after her release in Khartoum.
24 June 2014 - Sudan death row woman Meriam Ibrahim 'detained'. This
Sudanese woman freed from death row on Monday has been detained with her family
at
Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced in May to hang for renouncing Islam, sparking widespread outrage at home and abroad.
About 40 security agents detained Mrs Ibrahim - along with her husband, Daniel Wani and two children - at the airport, the sources said.
A top Sudanese official has told the BBC she would be freed "soon".
Abdullahi Alzareg from the ministry of foreign affairs told the BBC's Newshour programme that Mrs Ibrahim had been arrested because she did not have the correct travel documents.
Although she is Sudanese, she was using emergency South Sudanese papers with a US visa, he said.
Her husband is a Christian from what is now South Sudan and has US nationality.
One of Mrs Ibrahim's lawyers, el-Shareef Ali, told the BBC that her legal team is being denied access to her.
She was released from prison on Monday after an appeal court annulled the death sentence imposed on her.
She was arrested in February, and gave birth to a daughter in prison not long after being sentenced.
The family has been taken to the headquarters of one of Sudan's security agencies, the sources said.
Before she was detained on Tuesday, Western countries had welcomed the decision to rescind the death penalty.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Analysis: James Copnall, South Sudan Analyst & former BBC Sudan Correspondent
The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) is an extremely powerful body, which frequently intervenes in Sudanese politics.
It is a key part of the informal coalition - also comprising the military, Islamists and pragmatists - which rules Sudan.
The different components are constantly jockeying for a better position.
In recent times, NISS has been flexing its muscles.
It is very possible that NISS did not like the decision to release Meriam Ibrahim, and re-arresting her and her family was a way of making this point to the rest of the Sudanese government.
However, security is not a homogenous entity either.
It is also conceivable that one part of NISS accepted Mrs Ibrahim's release, while another section was not happy with it.
Mrs Ibrahim's release and re-arrest simply underlines the fact that there are many decision-makers in Sudanese politics, and they do not always agree with each other.
Born to a Muslim father, Mrs Ibrahim, 27, married Mr Wani in 2011.
Sudan has a majority Muslim population, and Islamic law has been in force there since the 1980s.
Even though Mrs Ibrahim was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, the authorities considered her to be a Muslim because that is the religion of her father.
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----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
LISTSERVE
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 10:19 PM
Subject: Sudan - Woman Condemned to Death for "Apostasy,"
Released after International Pressure
WUNRN
Meriam Ibrahim was released from Omdurman
Woman’s Prison today after an appeal court found her not guilty of the charges
of 'apostasy' and 'adultery'.
© AFP/Getty Images
23 June 2014 - “Today’s ruling is a small
step to redressing the injustice done to Meriam. However, she should never have
been prosecuted. Meriam was sentenced to death when eight months pregnant for
something which should not be a crime. ” Sarah Jackson, Deputy Africa Director
at Amnesty International
Today’s release of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, a
Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to death by hanging for ‘apostasy’ and to
flogging for ‘adultery’, is a step towards undoing the horrific injustice
visited on her, said Amnesty International today.
Meriam was released from Omdurman Woman’s
Prison today after an appeal court found her not guilty of both charges. She is
now with her husband and her two children.
“Today’s ruling is a small step to
redressing the injustice done to Meriam,” said Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional
Director at Amnesty International. “However, she should never have been
prosecuted. Meriam was sentenced to death when eight months pregnant for
something which should not be a crime. Furthermore, her abhorrent treatment,
including being shackled, violated international human rights law against ill-treatment.”
Meriam’s case attracted more than a million
Amnesty International supporters to take action calling for her immediate and
unconditional release.
“Amnesty International would like to pay
tribute to all those who contributed to this massive showing of support,” said
Sarah Jackson. “Their letters showed the Sudanese authorities that people
around the world were outraged by Meriam’s ordeal”.
“Amnesty International will continue to
urge the Sudanese authorities to repeal provisions that criminalize acts of
apostasy and adultery so that nobody else in
_______________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
LISTSERVE
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 12:26 PM
Subject: Sudan - Judges to Decide if Christian Woman Will Be
Executed for 'Apostasy'
WUNRN
SUDAN - JUDGES TO DECIDE IF
CHRISTIAN WOMAN WILL BE EXECUTED FOR "APOSTASY"
By Abdelmoneim Abu Idris
Ali - June
9, 2014
Khartoum
(AFP) - A three-judge panel in Sudan will examine the appeal of a Christian woman
sentenced to hang for apostasy, in a case that has drawn international condemnation,
her lawyer said Monday.
"The judiciary appointed three
judges last week to examine the appeal filed in the case of Meriam Yahia
Ibrahim Ishag," lawyer Mohanad Mustafa told AFP, without specifying when
they will deliver a ruling.
Ishag, who was born to a Muslim father,
was sentenced to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in
place since 1983, and which outlaws conversions under pain of death.
The 27-year-old was raised an Orthodox
Christian, her mother's religion, married a Christian man originally from South
Sudan and already had a 20-month-old son before she gave birth to a daughter on
May 27.
She has denied ever committing apostasy.
The lawyer said he had visited her on
Monday at the women's prison in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital
Khartoum, adding that her son and her newborn baby were with her and
"healthy".
The case has embarrassed the Sudanese
authorities, who gave contradictory statements last week about her release,
raising the ire of Western governments and human rights groups.
The
United States, Britain and France have called for her to be released, but the
authorities are also under pressure from radical Islamist movements in Sudan
that are demanding her execution.
Her husband Daniel Wani, who has US
nationality, told AFP last week that he did not believe she would be freed.
Amnesty
International said Ishag was raised an Orthodox Christian by her mother because
her Muslim father was absent, and called the sentence "abhorrent".
______________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
LISTSERVE
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 10:34 AM
Subject: Sudan - Pregnant Woman Could Be Executed for 'Apostasy,'
Whipped for 'Adultery'
WUNRN
Sudan - Pregnant Woman Could Be Executed
for ‘Apostasy,’ Whipped for ‘Adultery’
Christian pregnant woman accused of converting from Islam
because her father was Muslim.
April 28, 2014
-JUBA, (Morning Star News) – A pregnant woman in
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
“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
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.
Rights workers
are trying to pressure the government to give Ibrahim, a medical doctor who
graduated from
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.
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.”
Ibrahim
was born in a small town in western
When
life became hard for her and her mother, they decided to move to
Ibrahim
progressed in school and graduated from the prestigious
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
“I am a
Christian,” Ibrahim told the court in
Though
no one has been executed for apostasy in
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
The
couple’s toddler boy is a
“I will
have to take a DNA sample in
Wani
told Morning Star News that when he called the U.S. Embassy on April 9, a representative
in
“I have
tried to apply for papers to travel to the
U.S. Embassy personnel declined to speak about the matter to Morning Star News.
At a
hearing for Ibrahim on April 18, the court requested more witnesses to testify
that she never practiced Islam, according to attorneys. Wani said those wishing
to help can contact