KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A Sudanese woman sentenced to
death for refusing to recant her Christian faith after allegedly
converting from Islam has appealed the sentence, her lawyer said.
The
appeal demands the release of Meriam Ibrahim, saying the court that
tried her committed "procedural errors," her lawyer, Eman Abdul-Rahim,
told The Associated Press late Wednesday.
Ibrahim was sentenced to
death for "apostasy" last month by a Khartoum court for allegedly
converting to Christianity from Islam. She maintains that her Muslim
father left when she was young and that she was raised a Christian by
her Ethiopian mother, who is an Orthodox Christian.
Ibrahim
married a Christian man from southern Sudan in a church ceremony in
2011. As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited
from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their
faith.
Ibrahim has a son, 18-month-old Martin, who is living with
her in jail, where she gave birth to a second child last week. By law,
children must follow their father’s religion.
A video obtained by
the AP shows Ibrahim with her newborn and her son Martin at the prison’s
hospital where she gave birth. Looking happy and relaxed, the video
shows Ibrahim breastfeeding the baby while seated on a bed with Martin
sitting close by.
Amnesty International condemned the sentence
against Ibrahim, calling it "abhorrent," and the U.S. State Department
said it was "deeply disturbed" by the sentence.
Sudan introduced
Islamic Shariah law in the early 1980s under the rule of autocrat Jaafar
Nimeiri, a move that contributed to the resumption of an insurgency in
the mostly animist and Christian south of Sudan.
The south seceded in 2011 to become the world’s newest nation, South Sudan.
Sudanese
President Omar Bashir, an Islamist who seized power in a 1989 military
coup, has said his country will implement Islam more strictly now that
the non-Muslim south is gone.
A number of Sudanese have been
convicted of apostasy in recent years, but they all escaped execution by
recanting their new faith.
Religious thinker and politician
Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, a critic of Nimeiri and his interpretation of
Shariah, was sentenced to death for apostasy. He was executed in 1985 at
the age of 76.