Sudan: Woman sentenced to hang for giving up Islam

In Sudan, Muslim women are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can. Picture: Getty

A Sudanese court has sentenced a woman to hang for apostasy after she left Islam and married a Christian man.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag was given four days to repent and escape death following the sentencing earlier this week, judicial officials said. The deadline expired yesterday.

Officials said the court in the capital, Khartoum, had yesterday also ordered she be given 100 lashes for committing “zena” –an Arabic term for illegitimate sex – for having relations with a non-Muslim.

Mrs Ibrahim, said to be eight months pregnant, married a Christian in 2011 and the couple have a child.

In Sudan, Muslim women are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their faith.

“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death,” the judge told the woman. Human rights group Amnesty International condemned the sentence as “appalling and abhorrent”.

Local media report the sentence would not be carried out until two years after the birth.

Western embassies and rights groups had urged Sudan to respect the right of the pregnant woman to choose her religion.

It was reported that the 100 lashes the woman was sentenced to will be carried out when she has recovered from giving birth.

In court, the judge addressed her by her Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.

She was convicted of adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan was void under  Sudan’s version of Islamic law.