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["Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>]

http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusintl/ap10-22-111314.asp?reg=africa&vts=102220041126

 

Two Nigerian women to appeal death by stoning sentences for adultery

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABUJA, Nigeria, Oct. 22 - A court in northern Nigeria has sentenced two women 
to death by stoning for allegedly committing adultery, and both will soon 
appeal the sentences, a human rights group said Friday.

 

     The sentences, passed down in Nigeria's Bauchi state in September and 
early October, are the first of their kind in over a year in the mainly 
Muslim north, where 12 states have introduced controversial <>

 

Islamic Shariah criminal codes since 1999. 


       One of the two women, 18-year-old Hajara Ibrahim, was sentenced Oct. 
5. She is due to appeal the ruling on Monday, said Bunmi Dipo-Salami of 
Baobab, a group of human rights lawyers that is funding lawyers for her 
defense. 


       Ibrahim, who is about seven-months pregnant, was convicted of 
adultery. But Dipo-Salami said the case was being appealed on the basis that 
Ibrahim was technically never married. 


       Under the code, sex outside wedlock is considered adultery if one of 
the partners is or has ever been married. If neither partner was ever 
married, then sex outside wedlock is condemned as ''fornication,'' punishable 
by whipping. 


       Dipo-Salami said Ibrahim was promised in matrimony to a man while 
still a minor, lived with him for only a short time, and the marriage was 
never consummated. 


       Ibrahim was impregnated by another man, Dipo-Salami said. The Shariah 
court ordered her to return to her home village, where she is to give birth 
before the sentence is carried out. 


       The other woman, 25-year-old Daso Adamu, was sentenced to death by 
stoning on Sept. 15. She says she was made pregnant by one of her two 
ex-husbands and is appealing on the basis that the sentence was ''unfair and 
unjust,'' said a Baobab official, who gave no further details.


       Adamu was initially imprisoned along with her baby of less than six 
months. She was released on bail on Wednesday, after her first appeal 
hearing. The case was adjourned until Nov. 3. 


       Under Shariah law, men can only be convicted of adultery on the basis 
of witness statements, while pregnancy is considered sufficient evidence to 
convict women. In all but one case, men have been cleared, as Shariah courts 
found there was insufficient evidence to prove they had sex with the women. 
Tests to determine children's paternity have not been conducted by the 
courts. 


       The sole man convicted is Ahmadu Ibrahim, who was convicted along with 
the woman he allegedly committed adultery with, Fatima Usman. They were both 
sentenced to death two years ago and are appealing. 


       No one has so far been stoned to death under Shariah in Nigeria. Two 
other women have previously been sentenced to death for adultery, but both 
sentences were overturned on appeal. The first, Safiya Hussaini, had her 
sentence overturned on appeal in March 2003. The second, Amina Lawal, went 
through a seven-month legal battle in which her first appeal was rejected as 
international outcry increased. Finally, her sentence was overturned on a 
technicality in September 2003. 


       Controversy over the introduction of Shariah criminal law in Nigeria 
in 1999 and 2000 sparked clashes in which thousands were killed, both in the 
north and the majority-Christian south. 

       On the Net: 
       Baobab: http://www.baobabwomen.org<http://www.baobabwomen.org/> 
       ^dbk/tsp 
© 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be 
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