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Appeal to stop stoning rejected
Ap, Aug. 20, 2002
http://www.boston.com/
By Oloche Samuel, Associated Press, 8/20/2002
FUNTUA, Nigeria – An Islamic high court in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal yesterday by a single mother sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.
The woman’s lawyers said they will appeal to another higher Islamic court. If that fails, they can appeal to the Supreme Court, where the case would force a showdown between Nigeria’s constitutional and religious authorities.
The introduction of Islamic law, or Shariah, in a dozen northern states has sparked clashes between the country’s Christians and Muslims.
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government has declared Shariah punishments such as beheadings, stonings, and amputations unconstitutional. Some predominantly Muslim northern states, which began instituting Shariah shortly after civilian rule replaced military dictatorship in 1999, have accused Obasanjo of meddling.
Clutching her baby daughter, Amina Lawal burst into tears as the judge delivered the ruling.
Lawal, 30, was first sentenced in March after giving birth to a daughter more than nine months after divorcing.
”We uphold the judgment from the lower court,” Judge Aliyu Abdullahi said on behalf of four judges at the Islamic high court at Funtua, in Nigeria’s northern Katsina state.
Many of the 60 people who packed the small court room shouted ”God is great!” in the Hausa dialect, as Lawal wept.
The judge said the sentence would be carried out as soon as Lawal finishes breast feeding her baby. In June, the court postponed her execution until January 2004 for this reason.
[...]
Lawal is the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death by Islamic courts for having sex out of wedlock. The first, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March on an appeal.
At least two other women have faced similar charges. One case was dismissed in January, and the other is on hold until the woman is healthy enough to appear in court.
All the women have been poor, uneducated, single mothers from rural villages.
Lawal’s conviction was upheld on the basis that she admitted to having sex outside marriage.
But her legal team argued she could not have knowingly made a confession because she did not understand the Arabic term for adultery, ”zena.”
The man Lawal identified as her baby’s father denied he is the father and was acquitted in March for lack of evidence.
Most spectators in court yesterday welcomed the ruling.
”This is a triumph of Allah’s law against the enemies of Shariah,” said Mohammed Radiu, 26, an Islamic studies student.
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