Sudanese mother sentenced to death for 'converting to Christianity' freed after international outcry

Daily Mail ^ | 06/23/2014 | DAMIEN GAYLE

[SeekAndFind]

A court in Sudan today ordered the release of the 27-year-old woman sentenced to death last month for converting from Islam to Christianity, the state news agency said.

The case of Meriam Ibrahim, who is married to a Christian American, triggered an international outcry. She gave birth to a baby daughter while in prison.

'The appeal court ordered the release of Mariam Yahya and the cancellation of the (previous) court ruling,' Sudan's SUNA news agency said.

The couple's 20-month-old son was also held in prison with Ms Ibrahim and her newborn daughter.

A government official had told Reuters on May 31 that Sudanese officials were working to release Ibrahim.

As well as the death sentence for apostasy (the crime of abandoning your religion) Ibrahim was also sentenced to 100 lashes for what the court deemed her adultery for marrying a Christian.

Born to a Muslim father, she was convicted under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

She gave birth just 12 days after the verdict. It had been thought she was still shackled throughout the delivery and beyond, according to the rules which stipulate the treatment of death row inmates in Sudan.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Best News I’ve heard all day Thank God!!

[SeekAndFind]

SOURCE: HOTAIR

Update: There is good news on the asylum front, too, at least preliminarily:

Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel Wani, holds dual U.S.-Sudanese citizenship, and Ibrahim’s supporters argued that their children, including a daughter named Maya born in prison in May and a 20-month-old boy named Martin who was imprisoned with her, are U.S. citizens.

Sources close to the situation tell FoxNews.com that Ibrahim was whisked away to a confidential location and that her lawyers will be meeting with representatives from the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday.

“This is a huge first step,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee. “But the second step is that Ms. Ibrahim and her husband and their children be on a plane heading to the United States.”

Make it so.

[Fitzy_888]

I bet Obama will give them asylum...if they walk from Honduras.

[SeekAndFind]

SOURCE: HOTAIR

Update: There is good news on the asylum front, too, at least preliminarily:

Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel Wani, holds dual U.S.-Sudanese citizenship, and Ibrahim’s supporters argued that their children, including a daughter named Maya born in prison in May and a 20-month-old boy named Martin who was imprisoned with her, are U.S. citizens.

Sources close to the situation tell FoxNews.com that Ibrahim was whisked away to a confidential location and that her lawyers will be meeting with representatives from the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday.

“This is a huge first step,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee. “But the second step is that Ms. Ibrahim and her husband and their children be on a plane heading to the United States.”

[Mercat]

I won’t relax on this until she’s in the country on a visa.

[AmericanExceptionalist]

I am simply ecstatic over this!

And her husband, of course, must be especially overjoyed.

[Maryhere]

Merriam gave birth to a baby girl and she had her 20 month old boy with her in the prison where she gave birth to her baby girl. The woman has gone through hell and needs to get out of that country. Her children are safe right now with their mother but not for long if they don’t get themselves out of Sudan. Praise God for getting her free but now she has to get to the USA as she is a citizen. We need to keep praying God’s interference for Merriam.

[Abby4116]

link

I realize that this is from a blog (very hard to find background info) but I found it interesting:

The U.S. Embassy’s neglect began in September 2013 when Meriam, Daniel, and little Martin were all arrested. According to sources on the ground, the Embassy did not answer Daniel’s call to their direct line for consular assistance or offer any consular aid to wheelchair-bound Wani, who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy. Daniel also asked the Embassy for help when there was an attempt to kidnap Martin. Again, there was no response from the Embassy. This is not the way that the U.S. government should respond to the distress of a U.S. citizen.

After his release, Daniel again sought help at the US Embassy to defend Meriam, but the Embassy told him that they couldn’t help him since Meriam was not a U.S. citizen. They suggested he hire an attorney and “deal with it through the Sudanese legal system,” which means, apparently, that the U.S. Embassy has more respect for Shariah than for the rights of a U.S. citizen.

In addition, if the State Department had provided a spousal visa for Meriam to travel to the United States with Daniel soon after their wedding when he had applied for it, none of these other encounters would have been necessary because Meriam never would have been in Khartoum to be arrested!

[SeekAndFind]

I won’t relax on this until she’s in the country on a visa.

Meriam Ibrahim Safe in Secret Location

EXCERPT:

Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian mother of two sentenced to death by a Sudanese court for committing apostasy has been freed from prison and is now in a secret location.

[SeekAndFind]

This is one very courageous woman. All she needed to do was recant her Christian faith. She refused.

SEE HERE:

EXCERPT:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sudan/10920306/Sudanese-woman-sentenced-to-death-for-apostasy-to-be-freed.html

The judge ruled that Ms Ibrahim would not be executed for two years after the birth of the baby – but her husband and legal team were desperately hoping that the verdict would be overruled before then. Yet he told The Telegraph she was refusing to recant her Christian beliefs – despite the death sentence.

“She is not going to renounce her religion, though,” he said. “She told me that.”

[Mercat]

I always have assumed I would also be that brave. So far I haven’t been tested like she has.

[Pajamajan]

Thanks be to God.

More prayers are needed for her-From the article-It seems that she is not out of danger yet.

She won't be safe until she leaves Sudan, and arrives here- But at least she's been freed from the prison.

Hopefully she and her children are doing better. In her last picture, she looked very dehydrated and malnourished. Prayers continuing for she and her family.

[Albion Wilde]

Hallelujah, God Almighty! Thank you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

[Albion Wilde]

Nevermind the locals, I believe it was Meriam’s own brother who turned her in.

I've heard conflicting accounts: one is that her blood relatives turned her in because they were jealous of her success and wanted to take over her businesses; and the other that the persons who turned her in misrepresented themselves as her relatives to get the businesses but weren't actually relatives.

[Albion Wilde]

"I thank you my heavenly Father, that you have kept Miriam from terrible harm and danger, and ask that you send Your holy angels to watch over her so that the evil foe may have NO POWER over her-- or her precious lambs. In the name of Your dear Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, whom your dear daughter would not deny!"

Amen!

[Fantasywriter]

Thank you so much for your updates. I am prayerfully thankful for this development. I do wish she was out of the country. May God guard & protect her, her husband & her precious children. May they soon be beyond the reach of those crazed death cultists in Sudan; amen.

[milagro]

I’ll second that!

[defconw]

"Make it so."

AMEN!

[madison10]

Been praying for her here as well. She DOES get to keep her own children, correct?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: She DOES get to keep her own children, correct?

Yes. They’re with her now even as I write this.