A court sentenced a pregnant, Christian Sudanese woman to death by hanging Thursday after she refused to renounce her faith, a decision Amnesty International called “abhorrent.”
Meriam Ibrahim, 27, was convicted on charges of “apostasy” — the crime of abandoning or renouncing a religion. The court also ordered Ibrahim — who married a Christian man in 2011 and is eight months pregnant — to receive 100 lashes for “adultery” because her marriage is considered void under Shari’a law. The couple has a child, a 20-month-old boy, who is currently in detention with her.
“The fact that a woman has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is appalling and abhorrent,” Manar Idriss, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, said in a statement. “Adultery and apostasy are acts which should not be considered crimes at all. It is flagrant breach of international human rights law.”. . .