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Meriam Ibrahim: Sudanese apostasy woman detained at airport after release Meriam Ibrahim: Sudanese apostasy woman freed from death row is re-arrested at airport
(about 3 hours later)
A Sudanese woman who was freed from death row after being convicted of apostasy has been detained at Khartoum airport, a security source has claimed. Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, the Christian woman sentenced to death and later freed after an international outcry, was re-arrested while trying to leave the country for the US.
Mariam Yahya Ibrahim was sentenced to death last month for renouncing Islam and was initially released on Monday after what the government said was "unprecedented" international pressure. Eman Abdul-Rahim, a lawyer representing Ms Ibrahim, said she had been held along with her two children and husband at the international airport in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. The BBC reported that Ms Ibrahim, whose death sentence in May for renouncing Islam sparked international outrage, was detained by around 40 security agents.
An appeals court found Ms Ibrahim not guilty on two charges of apostasy and adultery, the latter of which was to see her flogged 100 times. That came 24 hours after her husband, Daniel Wani, who has US citizenship, had said the family would go to the US after his wife was released.
The security official said he did know the reason for the re-arrest. One of Ms Ibrahim's lawyers said she was being held at a security building outside the airport along with her Christian American husband Daniel Wani and their two young children. The 27-year-old, whose father was Muslim but who was raised by her Christian mother, was convicted of apostasy for marrying a Christian. Sudan’s penal code forbids Muslims from converting to other religions, a crime punishable by death.
Her husband said on Monday the family intended to travel to the US upon her release. About 40 security agents detained Ms Ibrahim today as they tried to board a plane, a source told the BBC. Ibrahim, who was pregnant at the time, was sentenced to flogging and to be hanged. She was arrested in February and gave birth to a daughter in prison with her legs chained not long after being sentenced. Her punishment drew international condemnation, with Amnesty International calling it “abhorrent” and the US State Department saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the sentence.
The US had indicated its willingness to expedite the family’s route to starting afresh across the Atlantic - but said while the release was a "huge first step", getting the family on a plane to the US would be the second. On Monday, however, Sudan’s Court of Cassation threw out Ibrahim’s death sentence and freed her after a presentation by her legal team. The Sudanese foreign ministry said it had come under “unprecedented” international pressure to free Ibrahim. The US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “Her case has rightly drawn the attention of the world and has been of deep concern to the United States government and many of our citizens and their representatives in Congress.”
Mr Wani had earlier described how Ms Ibrahim was forced to give birth in prison with her legs chained, after she refused to renounce her Christian faith during a four day 'grace period' when she was eight months pregnant. Sources said the family had been taken to the headquarters of one of Sudan’s security agencies after being arrested at Khartoum airport. Sudan introduced Islamic Sharia law in the early 1980s under the rule of autocrat Jaafar Nimeiri. A number of Sudanese have been convicted of apostasy in recent years, but they all escaped execution by recanting their new faith, something Ibrahim refused to do.
An Amnesty International campaign has followed Ms Ibrahim's story since it emerged last month, while a Change.org online petition has received more than 980,000 signatures. AP
Her lawyer, Mohaned Mostafa said that Ms Ibrahim had been sent “to an unknown house to stay at for her protection and security”. Meriam Ibrahim with her husband Daniel Wani (left), and two sons, after her release (Getty)
Meriam Ibrahim with her husband Daniel Wani (left), and two sons, after her release (Getty)   An Amnesty International campaign has followed Ms Ibrahim's story since it emerged last month, while a Change.org online petition has received more than 980,000 signatures