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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 475 • Posted: Tuesday August 20, 2002  

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World Organisation Against Torture (Geneva)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200208190501.html

PRESS RELEASE
August 19, 2002

The International Secretariat of OMCT has received new information concerning the case of Amina Lawal who was sentenced to death by stoning by a Sharia court in Katsina State in Nigeria.

New information
According to information received, on 19 August 2002, the Islamic court of appeal in Funtua, Katsina State upheld the original sentence of stoning to death. When handing down his verdict, appeal court judge Aliyu Abdullahi stated that the sentence is to be carried out in January 2004 after Ms. Lawal’s eight-month-old daughter, Wasila has been weaned.

Advocates for Amina Lawal, including the federal government’s minister for women’s affairs, have declared that they intend to appeal the sentence to the Supreme Court in Abuja. Ms. Lawal’s lawyers have 30 days in which to appeal the sentence.

Brief reminder of the Situation
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is deeply concerned by the sentencing to death by stoning of 30 year-old Amina Lawal.

According to information received from reliable sources, on Friday 22 March 2002, a Sharia court at Bakori in Katsina State sentenced Ms. Lawal to death after she confessed to having had a child while divorced. The man named as the father of her baby girl reportedly denied having sex with her and the charges against him were discontinued. In those Northern Nigerian states that apply Sharia law, pregnancy outside of marriage constitutes sufficient evidence to enable a woman to be convicted of adultery. Under the applicable procedural rules, Amina Lawal has 30 days in which to appeal her sentence.

Importantly, this most recent sentence of death by stoning for alleged adultery was handed down three days before a Sharia court in Sokoto State upheld the appeal by 35 year-old Safiya Husseini Tungar Tudu who had also been convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. The case of Safiya Husseini elicited a strong reaction from both the Federal government of Nigeria, international inter- governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. The Federal Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi has reportedly written to the governors of each of the 12 northern Nigerian states that apply Sharia law advising them to “take measures to amend or modify the jurisdiction of the courts imposing these [corporal] punishments.”

OMCT is deeply concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Amina Lawal and unreservedly condemns the use of corporal punishment which clearly violates international human rights standards that prohibit the use of torture. OMCT would like to recall that the government of Nigeria is a State Party to international human rights instruments which prohibit and punish torture including; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In addition, Nigeria is a Party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which prohibits violence and other forms of discrimination against women.

Action requested
Please write to the Nigerian authorities urging them to:

i. guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Ms. Amina Lawal and her family;

ii. take all necessary measures to secure respect for the rule of law in Nigeria which includes respect for the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, such as the practice of corporal punishment;

iii. guarantee women their human rights, including their right to be free from discrimination and their right to be free from torture and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment;

iv. ensure in all circumstances the full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with national and international standards.

Addresses:
His Exellency Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Republic, The Presidency, Federal Secretariat Phase II, Shehu Shagari Way,Abuja; Fax: 234 9 523 21 36 (press office), Email: president.obasanjo@nigeriagov.org

Alhaji Sule Lamido, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maputo Street , Zone 3 Wuse District, Abuja, Nigeria ; Fax: 234 9 523 02 08.

Kanu Godwin Agabi, Minister of Justice, Ministry of Justice, New Federal Secretariat complex Shehu Shagari Way, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria; Fax: 234 9 523 52 08.

Alhaji Uman Musa Yar’adua, Governor, Office of the Military Administrator, Katsina, Katsina State, Nigeria.

The Embassy of Nigeria in your respective countries.

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