An appeals court in Sudan has begun the appeals trial of Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian mother sentenced to death for her refusal to renounce her faith in Christ.
Daniel Wani, the husband of Ibrahim, told CNN that formal notification has been given to himself and his wife’s attorney that the court has begun the deliberations of the case. The formal notice was issued Thursday meaning the court’s ruling could come at any time.
The appeal that was filed by Ibrahim’s attorney reportedly focused on what he termed “procedural errors” in the initial court’s ruling and the actions of the prosecutors.
Wani, an American citizen, has been asking the U.S. State Department to expedite an asylum process for his wife based on religious persecution. He also says that if she is released from prison, it’s very likely Islamic extremists will attack her.
Wani told reporters that after a lack of action from the State Department he has appealed to his state’s U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte to take steps to help his wife and children.
Christians in Sudan are telling media outlets and international aid organizations that they no longer feel safe to even pray after the religious persecution of Meriam Ibrahim.
One Christian activist told CNN that they are refusing to publicly identify themselves anymore because they don’t want to face the same situation as Ibrahim, who was sentenced to 100 lashes and then being hung to death for her failure to renounce Christ and praise Allah.
“The church is now contaminated with terror. You don’t feel safe in prayer,” he said.
A human rights lawyer in the country who is a Christian said that the Christian minority will never be able to make traction because of the government’s systemic persecution. The government-controlled media routinely tell the public that Christianity is an “illegitimate religion.”
The U.S. State Department continues to be virtually silent on the matter even though Ibrahim is the wife of an American and her children are legally American citizens.
The husband of a Sudanese woman jailed and sentenced to death for her belief in Christ has denied a series of stories in the western press that his wife is on the verge of being released by Sudanese authorities.
Daniel Wani, the American husband of Meriam Ibrahim, said that despite reports in various western news outlets, “only the appeals court” can free his wife and that no release is imminent.
The BBC had reported the possibly release along with comments from Abdullah Alzareg, undersecretary of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, who said that Sudan guarantees religious freedom and vowed to protect Ibrahim.
Ibrahim was turned into authorities by Muslim relatives after she would not convert to Islam at their demand.
Wani said despite the false reports of his wife’s imminent release, he believes that her conviction will be overturned on appeal.
“I’m hoping that, given the way people have come together around the world – which I want to thank them for,” he said. “All the rights groups, all the broadcasters … It’s looking like it had an effect. Perhaps it will result in the judgment being overturned.”
An Irish pastor who condemned Islam during a sermon is being investigated by police in Northern Ireland for a possible hate crime.
Pastor James McConnell of Whitewell Metropolitan Church gave a sermon on Sunday May 18th condemning Islam after being outraged over the treatment of Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian sentenced to death because she will not convert to Islam.
In the sermon, Pastor McConnell said that Christians around the world are persecuted and killed daily for belief in Christ by “fanatical worshippers of Allah.” He said that Allah is not the same as the Christian God but rather a heathen deity and the British government was foolish for attempting to appease radical Islamists.
Northern Ireland politicians immediately condemned the pastor’s comments. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said that the preacher’s comments about the Islamic religion were “hate mongering.” He called for a full investigation of the pastor to see if his comments could generate racist attacks on Muslims.
A Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death because she refuses to deny Christ gave birth to her daughter while chained to the wall.
Meriam Ibrahim’s American husband Daniel Wani said that while she was actually birthing their daughter Maya her legs were shackled to the wall. The guards refused to allow her to be unchained to make the birth safer for her or the child.
However, Wani said after days of refusing to allow him to see the child, the head of the prison not only allowed him in to see the child but released his wife so they could have a moment as a family together.
The local courts say they are going to delay her 100 lashes for two years to coincide with her execution. Initially, the courts ruled she was to be lashed as soon as she gave birth to her child.
Wani told the London Daily Telegraph that the moment was bittersweet knowing that she likely won’t live to see Maya live past age 2.
“I refuse to change. I am not giving up Christianity just so that I can live. I know I could stay alive by becoming a Muslim and I would be able to look after our family, but I need to be true to myself,” Ibrahim said.
A group of Senators are stepping up to stand for religious freedom not only in the United States but around the world by calling on the Obama administration to offer political asylum to a Sudanese woman sentenced to death for being a Christian.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the wife of an American citizen, is still facing death because she stands by her Christian faith despite the Sudanese government refusing to admit she had never been a Muslim. The government says that after she gives birth, when that child turns 2 she will be hung to death.
“I am disgusted and appalled by the inhumane verdict Ms. Ibrahim has received, simply for refusing to recant her Christian faith,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a resolution condemning the death sentence for being a Christian. Republican Senators Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Chris Coons of Delaware and Bob Menendez of New Jersey joined Rubio.
“Through our U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, the White House and the State Department have communicated our strong concern to the highest levels of the Government of Sudan over this case,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “We’ve also joined with other embassies in Khartoum to express our concern in a widely distributed public statement. U.S. Embassy officials have been engaged in the case from the earliest days.”
Ibrahim’s husband Daniel Wani is confined to a wheelchair and according to his family “depends on her for all the details of his life.”
Meriam Ibrahim, the 26-year-old Christian woman sentenced to death for converting from Islam when she had never been a Muslim, is reportedly being mistreated by her captors in a Sudanese jail.
Ibrahim’s husband, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, was able to see his wife for the first time since her capture and trial on Monday.
“She was shackled and her legs were very swollen,” Wani told members of a U.S. based advocacy group that is fighting for his wife’s release. Wani said that the prison is keeping her shackled at all times and making no accommodations for her advanced pregnancy.
The courts are allowing the couple’s 18-month-old son to stay in the jail cell with his mother because they do not recognize Wani’s rights as the boy’s father. The government says the boy is automatically Muslim and because Wani is a Christian he cannot have custody or parent the child.
Witnesses say that her brother who recently converted to Islam brought Ibrahim to the attention of the authorities. The brother created a fake birth certificate for his sister that he used to claim she was born a Muslim.
A Sudanese judge has officially sentenced a Christian woman to death for not converting to Islam.
Meriam Ibrahim, a 26-year-old mother and currently pregnant with her second child, was convicted of adultery and apostasy for her marriage to an American Christian man. Ibrahim, a physician, was brought up in a Christian home and has never been a part of the Islamic faith.
The judge said Ibrahim will receive 100 lashes immediately following the birth of her child for the adultery. She will be hung to death for not accepting Islam once the child is nursed and weaned.
Because Ibrahim was born in Sudan, the government says she’s Muslim even if she never worships Allah. Thus, they say she illegally converted to Christianity.
Amnesty International called the action a “flagrant breach of international human rights law.” Several U.S. State Department and Congressional officials expressed their outrage at the actions.
“The refusal of the government of Sudan to allow religious freedom was one of the reasons for Sudan’s long civil war,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees U.S. policy in Africa, said in a statement. “The U.S. and the rest of the international community must demand Sudan reverse this sentence immediately.”
A pregnant Christian woman in Sudan has been sentenced to 100 lashes and then death for adultery and apostasy.
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, 27, had been working as a doctor at the time she was seized by government officials. The graduate of Khartoum University has been a Christian her entire life and married a Christian man from South Sudan.
However, because Sudan is largely Muslim and controlled by Islamists, Ibrahim was considered Muslim by the government regardless of what she said was her faith. Therefore, they said her marriage to the Christian man was invalid and her having his child is adultery and apostasy.
“We grieve today at the sentencing to death of a mother, pregnant with her second child, for the expression of her faith and legal marriage to a practicing Christian,” said International Christian Concern Regional Manager William Stark.
“The handing down of such an extreme punishment under a law inspired by the al-Turabi radicalism of the early al-Bashir regime brings into question the direction Sudan intends to head following South Sudanese succession. Having embraced policies of Islamization and Arabization in the past, ICC fears Meriam could be the first of many more Christians to suffer under an increasingly radicalized Sudanese government intent on enforcing Sharia law throughout the land.”
The international director of the Barnabas Fund said that anti-Christianism in Sudan is increasing to the point women are being picked up off the street and beaten by authorities if they do not meet Sharia guidelines for dress even if they are not Muslims.
Leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia are in South Sudan attempting to stop escalating violence in the country from breaking into total civil war.
Several leaders in South Sudan believe the country is already in a state of war.
Ethiopian Prime Minsiter Hailemariam Desalegn and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will be holding talks today with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir regarding the violence. Kiir started the insurrection by firing his cabinet months ago including the country’s Vice President.
Kiir claimed on December 15th that the former leaders were attempting a coup which was denied by his rivals. After the President made the declaration, violence broke out in the nation’s capital and has spread to surrounding cities.
The United Nations says mass graves have been found throughout the nation and they fear that thousands have already been killed in the violence. Witnesses report that Muslim militias are targeting Christians for mass slaughter.