Sudanese authorities are to free a woman who was sentenced to death for having abandoned the Islamic faith, a foreign ministry official says.<\/p>\n
Meriam Ibrahim, who gave birth to a daughter in custody, will be freed in a few days, the official told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Abdullahi Alzareg, an under-secretary at the foreign ministry, said Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting the woman.<\/p>\n
Khartoum has been facing international condemnation over the death sentence.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Times newspaper, British Prime Minister David Cameron described the ruling as “barbaric” and out of step with today’s world.<\/p>\n
The UK Foreign Office this week said that it would push for Ms Ibrahim to be released on humanitarian grounds.<\/p>\n
Apostasy debate<\/strong><\/p>\n Ms Ibrahim, 27, was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, but a Sudanese judge ruled earlier this month that she should be regarded as Muslim because that had been her father’s faith.<\/p>\n She refused to renounce her Christianity and was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, she gave birth to a daughter in her prison cell – the second child from her marriage in 2011 to Daniel Wani, a US citizen.<\/p>\n The court said Ms Ibrahim would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the sentence was carried out.<\/p>\n The court had earlier annulled her Christian marriage and sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because the union was not considered valid under Islamic law.<\/p>\n Sudan has a majority Muslim population and Islamic law has been in force there since the 1980s.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sudanese authorities are to free a woman who was sentenced to death for having abandoned the Islamic faith, a foreign ministry official says. Meriam Ibrahim, who gave birth to a daughter in custody, will be freed in a few days, the official told the BBC. Abdullahi Alzareg, an under-secretary at the foreign ministry, said Sudan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n