KHARTOUM, May 15 — A Sudanese judge today sentenced a Christian woman to hang for apostasy, despite appeals by Western embassies for compassion and respect for religious freedom.
Born to a Muslim father, the woman was convicted under the Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 27, is eight months pregnant and married to a Christian national of South Sudan which broke away in 2011, human rights activists say.
“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told the woman, addressing her by her father’s Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.
Khalifa also sentenced Ishaq to 100 lashes for “adultery”. Under Sudan’s interpretation of sharia, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man and any such relationship is regarded as adulterous.
Ishag reacted without emotion when Abbas delivered the verdict at a court in the Khartoum district of Haj Yousef.
Earlier in the hearing, an Islamic religious leader spoke with her in the caged dock for about 30 minutes.
Then she calmly told the judge: “I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.”
Sudan has a strongly Islamist government but, other than floggings, extreme sharia law punishments have been rare.
After the hearing about 50 people demonstrated against the verdict.
“No to executing Meriam,” said one of their signs while another proclaimed: “Religious rights are a constitutional right.”
In a speech, one demonstrator said they would continue their protests until she is freed.
A smaller group supporting the verdict also arrived but there was no violence.
“This is a decision of the law. Why are you gathered here?” one supporter asked, prompting an activist to retort: “Why do you want to execute Meriam? Why don’t you bring corruptors to the court?”
Sudan is widely perceived as one of the most graft-ridden countries in the world, ranked 174th for its performance by campaign group Transparency International.
About 100 people, including Western embassy representatives, were in court to hear the sentence.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, four embassies expressed “deep concern” over her case.
She was convicted last Sunday but given until today to recant.
“We call upon the government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, including one’s right to change one’s faith or beliefs,” the embassies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands said in their statement.
That right is included in Sudan’s 2005 interim constitution as well as in international human rights law, they said.
The embassies urged Sudanese legal authorities “to approach Ms Meriam’s case with justice and compassion that is in keeping with the values of the Sudanese people”.
Amnesty International said Ishag was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother’s religion, because her Muslim father was absent.
“It’s not only Sudan. In Saudi Arabia, in all the Muslim countries, it is not allowed at all for a Muslim to change his religion,” Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told AFP earlier.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a British-based group working for religious freedom, said Ishag’s case is the latest among “a series of repressive acts” against religious minorities in Sudan.
It said deportations, the confiscation and destruction of church property, and other actions against Christians have increased since December 2012.
But Osman said there is no oppression of Christians.
“We are living together for centuries,” he said.
Deportations have only occurred against activists trying to convert people, which is not allowed, the minister said, adding religious buildings constructed without permits will be knocked down.
“Even a mosque, you cannot build a mosque without a licence... If you build it like that, it will be demolished.” — AFP
