Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced to hang in May for renouncing Islam, sparking widespread outrage at home and abroad.

About 40 security agents detained Mrs Ibrahim – along with her husband, Daniel Wani and two children – at the airport, the sources said.

On Monday, Mr Wani said the family intended to leave for the US.

Mrs Ibrahim was released from prison after an appeal court annulled the death sentence imposed on her.

She was arrested in February, and gave birth to a daughter in prison not long after being sentenced.

Born to a Muslim father, Mrs Ibrahim, 27, married Mr Wani, a Christian, in 2011.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population, and Islamic law has been in force there since the 1980s.

Even though Mrs Ibrahim was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, the authorities considered her to be a Muslim because that is the religion of her father.

Mr Wani has US citizenship.

Source: BBC

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Reports on Saturday said a Sudanese official had confirmed that Meriam Ibrahim, who gave birth in custody, would be freed in a few days.

But the foreign ministry said on Sunday Ms Ibrahim could only be released after a successful judicial appeal.

Her death sentence has sparked international outrage.

Ms Ibrahim was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, but a judge ruled last month that she should be regarded as Muslim because that had been her father’s faith.

She refused to renounce her Christianity and now faces hanging for apostasy.

‘Rumours’

Abdullahi al-Azreg, an under-secretary at the foreign ministry, told the BBC on Saturday that Ms Ibrahim, 27, would be freed because Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting her.

But the foreign ministry said on Sunday issued a clarification, saying that only the judicial system could rule on the case.

“The defence team of the concerned citizen has appealed the verdict … and if the appeals court rules in her favour, she will be released,” the ministry said.

Ms Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel Wani said he had only heard media reports about his wife’s release, which he described as rumours.

“No Sudanese or foreign mediator contacted me. Maybe there are contacts between the Sudanese government and foreign sides that I’m not aware of,” Mr Wani told Mohammad Osman, the BBC’s correspondent in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

“As far as I’m concerned I will wait for the appeal which my lawyer submitted and I hope that my wife will be released.”

Last Wednesday, Ms Ibrahim gave birth to a daughter in her prison cell – the second child from her marriage in 2011 to Daniel Wani, a US citizen.

The court had said Ms Ibrahim would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the sentence was carried out.

The court also annulled her Christian marriage and sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because the union was not considered valid under Islamic law.

In his interview with the BBC, Mr Wani said he was hoping to continue living in Sudan with his wife and children in the event of her release, but that that might be too difficult.

He also expressed his hope that the court would reconsider the verdict about the annulment of their marriage, which he confirmed he had also appealed against.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population and Islamic law has been in force there since the 1980s.

The ruling has revived a debate over apostasy, with liberal and conservative scholars giving different opinions over whether – and how – the act of abandoning the Islamic faith should be punished.

Source: BBC

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Amnesty International condemned the sentence, handed down by a judge in Khartoum, as “appalling and abhorrent”.

Local media report the sentence on the woman, who is pregnant, would not be carried out for two years after she had given birth.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population, which is governed by Islamic law.

“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death,” the judge told the woman, AFP reports.

Western embassies and rights groups had urged Sudan to respect the right of the pregnant woman to choose her religion.

The judge also sentenced the woman to 100 lashes after convicting her of adultery – because her marriage to a Christian man was not valid under Islamic law.

This will reportedly be carried out when she has recovered from giving birth.

Earlier in the hearing, an Islamic cleric spoke with her in a caged dock for about 30 minutes, AFP reports.

Then she calmly told the judge: “I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.”

Rival protesters

Amnesty International said the woman, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother’s religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood.

In court, the judge addressed her by her Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.

She was convicted of adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan was void under Sudan’s version of Islamic law, which says Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslims.

The woman was originally sentenced to death on Sunday but given until Thursday to return to Islam.

There were small groups of protesters outside the court – both her supporters and those who back the punishment.

About 50 people chanting “No to executing Meriam” were confronted by a smaller group who supported the verdict, but there was no violence.

Amnesty’s Sudan researcher Manar Idriss condemned the punishments, saying apostasy and adultery should not be considered crimes.

“The fact that a woman has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is appalling and abhorrent,” he said.

The BBC’s Osman Mohamed, in Khartoum, says death sentences are rarely carried out in Sudan.

Her lawyers plan an appeal to a higher court to get the sentence overturned.

On Tuesday, the embassies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern” about the case and urging Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, AFP says.

The woman was arrested and charged with adultery in August 2013, and the court added the charge of apostasy in February 2014 when she said she was a Christian and not a Muslim, Amnesty said.

The group called for her immediate release.

She is said to be eight months’ pregnant.

Source: BBC

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Dr Meriam Yahya Ibrahim was condemned to hang for allegedly leaving Islam and marrying a Christian man.

The court said that by doing so, she had abandoned her religious faith and was guilty of apostasy, which carries the ultimate penalty under Islamic law in the country.

But some liberal religious scholars have argued apostasy is not even a crime.

They back up their beliefs by citing the Koranic verse which states: “There shall be no compulsion in religion.”

Other more conservative Muslims refer to the words of the Prophet Muhammad in the Hadith saying: “It is not permissible to spill the blood of a Muslim except in three [instances]: A life for a life; a married person who commits adultery; and one who forsakes his religion and separates from the community.”

Day of judgement

Islam’s legal system – Sharia – says apostasy covers a wide range of offences, including conversion to another religion, idol worship, or mistreating the Koran.

While some scholars favour the death penalty, others say the punishment should be left to God on the day of judgement.

The late Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s religious and political leader, famously denounced the author Salman Rushdie as an apostate for his novel The Satanic Verses – and said he should be killed.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan also uphold strict interpretations.’

In 2006, an Afghan, Abdul Rahman, who announced his conversion to Christianity escaped a death sentence and was offered asylum in Italy.

Another Afghan citizen was granted asylum in the UK earlier this year after persuading the courts he faced the death penalty at home because he was an atheist.

Meanwhile, non-Muslims such as the Bahai community have faced difficulties in countries including Egypt.

‘Abhorrent’

Human rights groups have condemned Islamic laws on apostasy.

Amnesty International has described the latest case in Sudan as “abhorrent”.

“The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice … should never be even considered,” it said.

When she was convicted on Sunday, Dr Ibrahim – who is said to be eight months pregnant – was given three days by the court to return to Islam.

But she again affirmed her Christian faith, and her lawyer says she will appeal against the sentence.

For now, her fate hangs in the balance.

And the debate over apostasy – and whether she committed a crime in the first place – goes on.

Source: BBC

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Mariam Yahya Ibrahim had been ordered to abandon her newly adopted Christian faith and return to Islam. She had also been charged with adultery for marrying a Christian man.

Judge Abbas al Khalifa asked Ibrahim whether she would return to Islam. After she said “I am a Christian” the death sentence was handed down, the judicial sources said.

Outside the court, about 50 people held up signs that read “Freedom of Religion”, while some Islamists celebrated the ruling, chanting “God is Greatest”.

Young Sudanese university students have mounted a series of protests near Khartoum University in recent weeks asking for an end to human rights abuses, more freedoms and better social and economic conditions.

Western embassies and Sudanese activists have condemned what they said were human rights abuses and called on the Sudanese Islamist-led government to respect freedom of faith.

Source: Reuters

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