A Christian mother pregnant with her
second child has been formally convicted of adultery and apostasy, punishable
by 100 lashes and death, respectively.
On Sunday morning, Meriam
Yahia Ibrahim (pictured left) appeared before the El Haj Yousif Public Order Court in
Khartoum, Sudan, to defend her innocence to charges of adultery and apostasy
handed down by that same court on March 4.
Ibrahim, 27, was raised an Orthodox
Christian in a small town located in Western Sudan. A graduate of Khartoum
University, Ibrahim was a practicing M.D. when she married her husband, a South
Sudanese Christian with U.S. citizenship, Daniel Wani.
Sometime after discovering Ibrahim's
relationship with Wani, a relative reported her marriage to police specially
tasked with enforcing Sudan's public order criminal code. Having been born in
Sudan, Ibrahim is considered a Muslim by birth, making her marriage to Wani, a
non-Muslim, illegal in the eyes of Sudan's public order courts.
Without charge and before receiving
a fair, public trial, Ibrahim was arrested by Sudanese authorities and
arbitrarily detained in the Omdurman Federal Women's Prison with her
20-month-old son on Feb. 17.
Justice Center Sudan (JCS), a local
human rights organization providing Ibrahim's legal defense, has expressed its
intent to submit an appeal on her behalf. According to the JCS legal team,
headed by co-founder Mohand Mustafa, Ibrahim has been pressured by Sudanese
officials and religious authorities to convert from Christianity to Islam,
allegedly rendering promises to reduce, if not eliminate, the charges against
her for doing so. The center could neither confirm nor deny Ibrahim's intention
to or to not convert.
She and her child remain imprisoned,
separated from their husband and father, Wani, whose passport has reportedly
been revoked by the government of Sudan. Experts anticipate the sentences
against Ibrahim will be carried out following the birth of her unborn child,
which is expected to take place next month.
According to JCS, Ibrahim has
suffered beatings during her imprisonment, been denied medical treatment,
including prenatal care for her unborn child, and been refused prenatal
vitamins necessary to ensure a healthy birth.
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Due to his wife being convicted of
adultery, Wani is now legally ineligible to assume custody of their children.
The children are expected to be turned over to the custody of the Sudanese
state in the case of Ibrahim's execution or prolonged imprisonment.
Since Sudan's adoption of the public
order criminal code in 1991, no convicted persons have been put to death for
violation of the Shariah-inspired law.
Sudan's government, led by President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has been found guilty of "systematic, ongoing, and
egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief," according to
the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The U.S. Department of State has
designated Sudan a country of particular concern (CPC) since 1999. According to
USCIRF's 2014 annual report, the government of Sudan imposes "a
restrictive interpretation of Shariah law on Muslims and non-Muslims alike,
using amputations and floggings for crimes and acts of 'indecency' and
'immorality' and arresting Christians for proselytizing."
William Stark, International
Christian Concern's (ICC) regional manager, says, "We grieve today at
the sentencing to death of a mother, pregnant with her second child, for the
expression of her faith and legal marriage to a practicing Christian.
"The handing down of such an
extreme punishment under a law inspired by the al-Turabi radicalism of the
early al-Bashir regime brings into question the direction Sudan intends to head
following South Sudanese succession. Having embraced policies of Islamization
and Arabization in the past, ICC fears Meriam could be the first of many more
Christians to suffer under an increasingly radicalized Sudanese government
intent on enforcing Shariah law throughout the land."
This article originally appeared on persecution.org.
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