Khartoum - A Sudanese judge on Thursday sentenced a Christian woman to hang for apostasy, despite appeals by Western embassies that freedom of religion should be respected.
“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told the woman, addressing her by a Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.
Her Christian name is Mariam Yahya Ibrahim.
She was charged with apostasy as well as adultery for marrying a Christian man, something prohibited for Muslim women to do and which makes the marriage void.
Ibrahim's case was the first of its kind to be heard in Sudan.
Young Sudanese university students have mounted a series of protests near Khartoum University in recent weeks asking for an end to human rights abuses, more freedoms and better social and economic conditions.
The authorities decided on Sunday to close the university indefinitely. - AFP and Reuters