Sudan re-arrests death row woman

27 may 2014 Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag has given birth to a baby girl in prison in khartoum. She has been sentenced to death as the sudenese govt say she is muslim and has committed adultery. Meriam was raised christian.

27 may 2014 Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag has given birth to a baby girl in prison in khartoum. She has been sentenced to death as the sudenese govt say she is muslim and has committed adultery. Meriam was raised christian.

Published Jun 24, 2014

Share

Cairo - A Sudanese Christian woman was arrested on Tuesday at Khartoum airport a day after a court annulled her death sentence for apostasy and released her from prison, a source familiar with the incident said.

“The National Security took her and Daniel,” said the source, referring to Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26, and her American husband Daniel Wani.

The status of their two young children, one a baby born in prison before Ishag's release, was not immediately known.

The couple were detained, for reasons that are unclear, at about 11.00 GMT as they tried to leave the country, said the source.

He could not give more details except to say they were taken to a facility of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

“She has the right to leave the country,” the source said.

Her case sparked an outcry from Western governments and rights groups after a lower-court judge sentenced her to death on May 15.

Born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, Ishag was convicted under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

When Ishag was five, her father abandoned the family, and she was raised according to her mother's faith.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married. - AFP

Related Topics: