Sudanese Woman Appeals 'Apostasy' Death Sentence (Video)

Friday, June 6, 2014

KHARTOUM, SUDAN (Worthy News)-- Meriam Ibrahim, a woman sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to recant her Christian faith, has appealed the verdict against her.

The motion demands her release, saying the court that tried her committed "procedural errors," her attorney Eman Abdul-Rahim told media outlets on Wednesday.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a pregnant practicing physician in Western Sudan, is married to Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese Christian, who is an American citizen. But as a Sudanese, Ibrahim is considered a Muslim by birth through her father's Islamic faith, making her marriage to a Christian illegal.

According to sharia, any Muslim woman who marries a non-Muslim man commits adultery; therefore, any children that arise from that marriage are illegitimate in the eyes of Islam.

Ibrahim was arrested in February by Sudanese authorities and arbitrarily detained in the Omdurman Federal Women's Prison along with her 20-month-old son. Ibrahim gave birth to her second child in the prison where she's being held. The three of them are separated from Wani who – because of his wife's "adultery" – is legally ineligible to assume custody of their children, both of whom will be remanded to the Sudanese State in case of Ibrahim's execution, or prolonged imprisonment.

Sudan's foreign minister says the government can't interfere in the judicial process, but urged Ibrahim to appeal her sentence.