The US says it is working with Sudan to ensure a woman freed from death row can leave the country, after she was detained at Khartoum airport.
Meriam Ibrahim’s lawyer says she and her husband are being questioned over their travel documents. It is thought they were trying to fly to the US.
She was sentenced in May to hang for renouncing Islam – sparking an outcry – but was released from jail on Monday.
Mrs Ibrahim’s husband is a Christian from South Sudan and is a US citizen.
Security agents detained Mrs Ibrahim, husband Daniel Wani and two children at the airport on Tuesday, her lawyer, Thabit Suliman, said.
“The security authorities have not stated why she was apprehended and they are still being held in a security building at the airport,” the lawyer added.
US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Sudan’s government had given assurances that Mrs Ibrahim and her family were safe.
Earlier, a top Sudanese official told the BBC that although Mrs Ibrahim is Sudanese, she was using emergency South Sudanese papers with a US visa.
She would be asked to get a passport and exit visa on her release, Abdullahi Alzareg from the ministry of foreign affairs said.
Credit: BBC