{"id":34275,"date":"2014-07-24T13:43:25","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T13:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=34275"},"modified":"2014-07-24T13:43:25","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T13:43:25","slug":"sudan-apostasy-woman-meets-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=34275","title":{"rendered":"Sudan ‘apostasy’ woman meets Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sudanese woman who fled to Italy after being spared a death sentence for renouncing Islam has met the Pope.<\/p>\n

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag flew to Rome with her family after more than a month in the US embassy in Khartoum.<\/p>\n

There was global condemnation when she was sentenced to hang for apostasy by a Sudanese court.<\/p>\n

Mrs Ibrahim’s father is Muslim so according to Sudan’s version of Islamic law she is also Muslim and cannot convert.<\/p>\n

She was raised by her Christian mother and says she has never been Muslim.<\/p>\n

Welcoming her at the airport, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said: “Today is a day of celebration.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Ibrahim met Pope Francis at his Santa Marta residence at the Vatican soon after her arrival.<\/p>\n

“The Pope thanked her for her witness to faith,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

The meeting, which lasted around half an hour, was intended to show “closeness and solidarity for all those who suffer for their faith,” he added.<\/p>\n

‘Mission accomplished’<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Alan Johnston in Rome says there was no prior indication of Italy’s involvement in the case.<\/p>\n

Lapo Pistelli, Italy’s vice-minister for foreign affairs, accompanied her on the flight from Khartoum and posted a photo of himself with Mrs Ibrahim and her children\u00a0on his Facebook account<\/a>\u00a0as they were about to land in Rome.<\/p>\n

“Mission accomplished,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

A senior Sudanese official told Reuters news agency that the government in Khartoum had approved her departure in advance.<\/p>\n

Mrs Ibrahim’s lawyer Mohamed Mostafa Nour told BBC Focus on Africa that she travelled on a Sudanese passport she received at the last minute.<\/p>\n

“She is unhappy to leave Sudan. She loves Sudan very much. It’s the country she was born and grew up in,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But her life is in danger so she feels she has to leave. Just two days ago a group called Hamza made a statement that they would kill her and everyone who helps her,” he added.<\/p>\n

Mrs Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel Wani, also a Christian, is from South Sudan and has US nationality.<\/p>\n

Their daughter Maya was born in prison in May, shortly after Mrs Ibrahim was sentenced to hang for apostasy – renouncing one’s faith.<\/p>\n

Under intense international pressure, her conviction was quashed and she was freed in June.<\/p>\n

She was given South Sudanese travel documents but was arrested at Khartoum airport, with Sudanese officials saying the travel documents were fake.<\/p>\n

These new charges meant she was not allowed to leave the country but she was released into the custody of the US embassy in Khartoum.<\/p>\n

Last week, her father’s family filed a lawsuit trying to have her marriage annulled, on the basis that a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sudanese woman who fled to Italy after being spared a death sentence for renouncing Islam has met the Pope. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag flew to Rome with her family after more than a month in the US embassy in Khartoum. There was global condemnation when she was sentenced to hang for apostasy by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-34275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}