Woman sentenced to be stoned has appeal adjourned
-6/4/03
Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who has been sentenced to die by stoning has had her appeal adjourned
Woman sentenced to be stoned has appeal adjourned
-6/4/03
Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who has been sentenced to die by stoning has had her appeal adjourned until 27 August as she seeks to overturn a conviction for adultery.
She has been sentenced to receive the severest of all punishments under Islamic laws now practised in the country’s majority-Muslim northern states.
Amina Lawal was convicted of adultery in March last year by a court in the far northern state of Katsina.
She had borne a child outside marriage. And although she had in fact been divorced for some years – the mandatory punishment, under Islamic law as it is practised in Nigeria, is still death by stoning.
Amina has already lost one appeal against the sentence, and her lawyers are struggling to find new grounds on which to win an appeal.
Following campaigning by Christian and other human rights groups, President Olusegun Obasanjo himself has promised that the sentence against Amina Lawal will not be carried out.
But he has chosen his words very carefully. He won’t intervene directly, nor will he challenge the right of Islamic courts to impose such punishments.
Woman sentenced to be stoned has appeal adjourned
-6/4/03
Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who has been sentenced to die by stoning has had her appeal adjourned until 27 August as she seeks to overturn a conviction for adultery.
She has been sentenced to receive the severest of all punishments under Islamic laws now practised in the country’s majority-Muslim northern states.
Amina Lawal was convicted of adultery in March last year by a court in the far northern state of Katsina.
She had borne a child outside marriage. And although she had in fact been divorced for some years – the mandatory punishment, under Islamic law as it is practised in Nigeria, is still death by stoning.
Amina has already lost one appeal against the sentence, and her lawyers are struggling to find new grounds on which to win an appeal.
Following campaigning by Christian and other human rights groups, President Olusegun Obasanjo himself has promised that the sentence against Amina Lawal will not be carried out.
But he has chosen his words very carefully. He won’t intervene directly, nor will he challenge the right of Islamic courts to impose such punishments.