A doctor who is facing execution in Sudan for marrying a
Christian gave birth to a baby girl in prison today.
Meriam Ibrahim, who has spent the past four months shackled
to the floor in a disease-ridden jail, gave birth five days prematurely.
The baby was born in the hospital wing at Omdurman Federal
Women’s Prison in North Khartoum and is said to be healthy.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, her lawyer Mohaned
Mustafa Elnour said: 'This is some good news in what has been a terrible ordeal
for Meriam.
'I am planning to visit her with her husband Daniel later
today. I think they are going to call the baby Maya.’
Meriam, 27, was sentenced to death by hanging earlier this
month after being found guilty of converting from Islam to Christianity and
marrying a Christian man, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, who lives in Manchester,
New Hampshire.
She will receive 100 lashes before she is executed - sometime
in the next two years.
Before the birth, Meriam made the defiant claim that she
would rather die than give up her faith
In a heart-wrenching conversation with her husband during a
rare prison visit, Meriam told him: 'If they want to execute me then they
should go ahead and do it because I’m not going to change my faith.’
An Islamic Sharia judge said she could be spared the death
penalty if she publicly renounced her faith and becomes a Muslim once more.
Meriam insists she has always been a Christian and told her
husband she could not 'pretend to be a Muslim' just to spare her life.
She told him: 'I
refuse to change. I am not giving up Christianity just so that I can live.
'I know I could stay alive by becoming a Muslim and I would
be able to look after our family, but I need to be true to myself.’
Daniel, a 27-year-old biochemist, revealed his wife’s defiant
stance during an exclusive interview with MailOnline at his modest home in the
dusty Sudanese capital city of Khartoum.
Sitting beneath glamorous photographs of his wife taken at
their wedding in December 2011, he said: 'My wife is very, very strong. She is
stronger than me.
'When they sentenced her to death I broke down and tears were
streaming down my eyes. Our lawyers were passing me tissues. But she stayed
strong.
'She did not flinch when she was sentenced. It was amazing to
see, particularly because she is the one facing the death penalty.’
Daniel was in Khartoum trying to arrange for Meriam and their
20-month-old son Martin to live with him in the US when his wife was arrested
in September. She was three weeks pregnant with their second child.
She has been held since February in Omdurman Federal Women’s
Prison, North Khartoum, with Martin.
The authorities will not release Martin into the care of his
father because they claim he is a Muslim too.
She spends much of her time shackled to the floor, is not
receiving enough nutrition in her food to cope with the rigours of a difficult
pregnancy and is rarely allowed outside.
Both she and her bewildered son have contracted various
illnesses because of the poor sanitation at the jail.
A report by Human Rights Watch claims the prison is 'beset
with overcrowding’ and suffers from 'poor sanitation, disease and the deaths of
many children living with their mothers’.
Daniel, who is originally from South Sudan, but is now a
naturalized American, was initially refused permission to visit her.
Describing his first visit after she had been inside for two
months , he said: 'The first time I only had ten minutes and we never even had
a conversation with each other.
'I had to attend to my son first and once I had done that I
was told by the prison guards that my time was up.
'I wanted to take Martin away with me, but I knew I couldn’t.
It’s not good place to be for a little boy to be. I am not allowed to spent
time with them because the Sudanese officials do not recognise them as my wife
and son.
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