A Sudanese woman on death row for apostasy had her sentence
canceled and was ordered released by a Khartoum court on Monday, the country's
official news agency reported.
SUNA said the Court of Cassation canceled the death sentence
against 27-year-old Meriam Ibrahim after defense lawyers presented their case.
The court ordered her release.
Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim but who was raised by her
Christian mother, was convicted of apostasy for marrying a Christian. Sudan's
penal code criminalizes the conversion of Muslims to other religions, a crime
punishable by death.
Ibrahim married a Christian man from southern Sudan in a
church ceremony in 2011. As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are
prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their
faith.
Ibrahim has a son, 18-month-old Martin, who was living with
her in jail, where she gave birth to a second child last month, local media reported.
By law, children must follow their father's religion.
The sentence drew international condemnation, with Amnesty
International calling it "abhorrent." The U.S. State Department said
it was "deeply disturbed" by the sentence and called on the Sudanese
government to respect religious freedoms.
Sudan introduced Islamic Shariah law in the early 1980s under
the rule of autocrat Jaafar Nimeiri, a move that contributed to the resumption
of an insurgency in the mostly animist and Christian south of Sudan. The south
seceded in 2011 to become the world's newest nation, South Sudan.
Sudanese President Omar Bashir, an Islamist who seized power
in a 1989 military coup, has said his country will implement Islam more
strictly now that the non-Muslim south is gone.
A number of Sudanese have been convicted of apostasy in
recent years, but they all escaped execution by recanting their new faith.
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