I Was Never Afraid Says Lawal (Nigeria Stoning Death)

Ananova ^ | 9-30-2003

[blam]

I was never afraid says Lawal

The Nigerian mother who was spared death by stoning says she has renewed faith in Islam.

Amina Lawal, 32, won clemency from an Islamic appeals court from her death sentence for bearing a child conceived out of wedlock.

She said: "The trial did not affect my faith in Islam, because I know that Shariah makes room for fair trial. It is a fair procedure, and so I was never afraid throughout my trial."

Lawal, a devout Muslim, would have been the first person stoned to death since more than a dozen heavily Islamic states in northern Nigeria adopted Islamic law in 1999.

A panel of five judges ruled 4-1 in Lawal's favour, citing procedural errors and arguing she was not given "ample opportunity to defend herself".

Police and lawyers hustled Lawal away after the verdict. While she has remained in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, since the verdict. She hopes to return to her Muslim community in northern Katsina state soon, and remarry.

"Whoever God chooses to be my husband will be all right with me," Lawal said. "Everything is within the knowledge of God."

Lawal's case had drawn criticism from international rights groups. President Olusegun Obasanjo's government and world leaders called for Lawal to be exonerated, and Brazil offered her asylum.

Katherine Mabille of the French group Lawyers Without Borders, said the ruling "was very good for Amina," but pointed out other cases were pending. Her organisation is assisting two Nigerians facing amputation of their hands for theft.

Critics say Islamic law was being wielded for political means in northern power clashes with Nigeria's southern-based government, and contended the poor and illiterate - like Lawal - faced the harshest sentences.

© Associated Press

Story filed: 18:11 Tuesday 30th September 2003

[swarthyguy]

Oh, brother. Stone her anyway for stupidity. Some people will never learn.

[blam]

African and Islamic, talk about a death wish.

[kaylar]

Agree wholeheartedly. Her life wasn't spared because of Islam and sharia , she was saved due to the massive publicity her plight received in the Western (ie, nonislamic) media and particularly over the internet. Ungrateful #@*&%! She deserves to be a muslim!

[Lorianne]

I think I'd say the same thing were I in her shoes. She knows she has to say this if she want to avoid vigilante justice. Hope it works.

[Paleo Conservative]

The Nigerian mother who was spared death by stoning says she has renewed faith in Islam.

What did you expecter her to say? That she no longer believed in Islam? That's apostasy which is punishable by death.

[joesnuffy]

More likely to contract AIDs there if she keeps up the life style