Sudanese Christian woman, on death row for apostasy, is released

Meriam Ibrahim, a 27 year old Sudanese woman on death row, has been released on the orders of a court in Khartoum. She had been sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery and hanging for apostasy, after refusing to denounce her Christian faith.

The apostasy conviction came after a court insisted that she was a Muslim because her father was a Muslim, although Ibrahim said she had been raised Christian as her father abandoned the family when she was six. The adultery charge related to her marriage to a Christian man: under Sudanese law, a Muslim woman cannot marry a Christian man. After her conviction, she was given three days to renounce her faith and avoid the death sentence. She refused.

International outcry about Ibrahim’s conviction drew in human rights organisations, political and religious leaders, and celebrities. The leaders of all three main political parties in Britain called for her release, as did Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The campaign accelerated after it emerged that she was forced to give birth while chained to the floor of her prison cell at Omdurman women’s prison.

Now, the Sudanese state news agency, Suna, reports that "the appeal court ordered the release of [Ibrahim] and the cancellation of the [earlier] court ruling."

Amnesty International’s Sarah Jackson said:

"Today's ruling is a small step to redressing the injustice done to Meriam. However, she should never have been prosecuted. Meriam was sentenced to death when eight months pregnant for something which should not be a crime. Furthermore, her abhorrent treatment, including being shackled, violated international human rights law against ill-treatment."

Amnesty – as well as other human rights organisations – have called for the Sudanese authorities to repeal the laws that criminalise apostasy and adultery, and to abolish the death penalty.

UPDATE 4pm:

Reportedly, Ibrahim has been re-arrested and detained with her family at Khartoum airport.

The BBC's James Copnall says:

"The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) is an extremely powerful body, which frequently intervenes in Sudanese politics.

...

It is very possible that NISS did not like the decision to release Meriam Ibrahim, and re-arresting her and her family was a way of making this point to the rest of the Sudanese government."