Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag said
that as she was brought up a Christian, she had not committed apostasy
A Sudanese woman awaiting the death penalty for
abandoning her religious faith has given birth in jail near the capital,
Khartoum, her lawyer has said.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag married a
Christian man and was sentenced to hang for apostasy earlier this month after
refusing to renounce Christianity.
She is allowed to nurse her baby
girl for two years before the sentence is carried out.
Born to a Muslim father, she was
convicted by a Sharia court.
Sudan has a majority Muslim
population, which is governed by Islamic law.
Hundred lashes
Ms Ibrahim was also 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, which says Muslim women cannot
marry non-Muslims.
For this the judge sentenced her to
100 lashes, which will reportedly be carried out when she has recovered from
giving birth.
Ms Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox
Christian, her mother's religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly
absent during her childhood.
According to Amnesty International,
she was arrested and charged with adultery in August 2013, and the court added
the charge of apostasy in February 2014 when she said she was a Christian and
not a Muslim.
When
she was sentenced, a crowd of protesters gathered outside the court to stand up
for religious freedom
Lawyer Elshareef Ali said his
27-year-old client had given birth to a baby girl in the early hours of Tuesday
morning in a hospital wing at the prison.
She also has her 20-month-old son
with her as he has been held with her in prison since late February, he said.
Correspondents say death sentences
are rarely carried out in Sudan.
Ms Ibrahim's legal team lodged an
appeal on 22 May as Mr Ali says the verdict contravenes the constitution's
enshrining of freedom of faith, the Bloomberg news agency reports.
Western embassies and rights groups
have urged Sudan to respect the right of the woman to choose her religion.
Source: BBC
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