Posted on 08/19/2002 9:29:45 AM PDT by HAL9000
FUNTUA, Nigeria (AFP) - A Nigerian Islamic court threw out an appeal by a young woman sentenced to be stoned to death for bearing a child out of wedlock and ordered her to be executed once her child is weaned.The judgement was a slap in the face for a coalition of lawyers, activists and federal officials who had chosen the case to challenge the reintroduction of the strict Islamic legal code, or Sharia in the north of the country.
Amina Lawal's legal team announced an immediate appeal Monday. If they fail, their 30-year-old client could become the first Nigerian to be stoned to death since 12 northern states reintroduced Sharia.
Her team of Abuja-based lawyers and rights campaigners had argued that her conviction was unfair, that her confession had been retracted and that she had never understood the case against her.
But a four-judge panel meeting at the upper Sharia court in Funtua, 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Abuja, dismissed their arguments.
"Based on proofs derived through our investigations and through Islamic books I, Aliyu Abdullahi, and my three assistants hereby uphold the judgement passed by Bakori Sharia court," the lead judge said.
"We uphold your conviction of death by stoning as prescribed by the Sharia. This judgement will be carried out as soon as your baby is weaned," he told Lawal, who sat before the bench cradling her eight-month-old daughter.
A cry of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) resounded around the packed courtroom as Lawal, a shy and slight village housewife dressed in a bright red dress and deep purple open-faced veil, burst into tears.
At an earlier hearing, Lawal had told reporters she was confident that she would be cleared now that she had high-powered lawyers behind her. At her first trial in January she had no representation.
The verdict also shocked her supporters, including a representative of the Nigerian federal government, which has clashed with the northern states over Sharia but has yet to take concrete steps to ban it.
"I feel bad, I'm not happy at all. We thought they were going to discharge her," said Clara Obazele, a spokeswoman for women's affairs minister Aisha Ismail. "We're going to appeal the judgement."
Lawal's defence lawyer Aliyu Musa Yawuri said: "We're not satisfied with this decision, and we're going to appeal."
Lawal said nothing as she and baby Wasila were whisked away by defence lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim, a senior member of the Nigerian bar council.
Lawal, a divorcee, gave birth in January and was denounced by police to the Sharia court in Bakori.
She told the authorities that the father of Wasila, her third child, was Yahaya Mahmud, her boyfriend of 11 months, who she said had seduced her with an offer of marriage.
Mahmud admitted being Lawal's boyfriend, but swore on the Koran that he was not the father.
He was discharged. Lawal was tried and convicted based on her confession.
This mirrored Nigeria's previous stoning case, that of 35-year-old Safiya Husseini.
Under Sharia's strict rules of proof, witnesses are required to convict a man of adultery, while a woman may be condemned for falling pregnant.
In Husseini's case earlier this year the defence managed to get her acquitted on a series of technicalities, but the tactic did not work twice.
© 2002 AFP
Yes, look at Indonesia, "coming to your neighborhood soon". It's too agressive, and non-Muslims have their rights also, right?
To hell with PC and multi-culturalism, I don't want to live in a third-world country.
How anyone can conceivably, believe after the exposure we have had to the tenets of Islam over the past year, that we are engaged in anything other than the continuation of the war that began when Islam swept out of the Arabian desert in the seventh century, is beyond me.
Islam: fourteen uninterrupted centuries of barbarism unhampered by any civilizing influence or progress!
Lots of oil money in Nigeria.
Oh! Well in THAT case... </ sarcasm >
Thanks for the ping, knighthawk. I too am wondering where all the outrage is for this poor woman. And I'm getting really tired of listening to folks like Sean Hannity speak of Islam as if it is a nice, peaceful religion aside from those nasty extremists. Sharia is Islamic Law, period. Real peaceful, and just chock full of human rights.
Yes, it's not like a majority wants to introduce sharia in Malaysia or Indonesia, or in Europe or the US for that matter. /sarcasm off
Yes, but lawyers like Sharpton can't get at it. I would love to see Ol' Al in Nigeria trying to run a scam like he is here.
Yes, but they have to be careful WHO they rape. If the victim is a member of a neighboring Islamic tribe, the rapist might be in real trouble. However, if the victim is an "Aussie pig" or some European, well, "inshallah". Coming from a religion where the "prophet" married a six year year girl, and consummated the marriage when she was nine years old, you can't expect too much.
"Based on proofs derived through our investigations and through Islamic books I, Aliyu Abdullahi, and my three assistants hereby uphold the judgement passed by Bakori Sharia court," the lead judge said.
Just for the sake of argument, same situation, same black woman, same crime - except now the four-judge panel were WHITE judges. Do you think the UN or the media, etc. would have something more to say about this situation? Hmmmm...?
Being able to sound like a fool AND make it rhyme won't get them very far in Nigeria.
One of these days I hope to hear Mullah Jackson's recitation of "Green Eggs And Ham." That would sound more intelligent than his usual prattle.
God, Mahmud is such a weenie. What does it matter to him if he is the father. I've read a little bit of the Koran. And from what I remember the law goes something like this: "If a man commits adultry, Allah is just and forgiving. If a woman commits adultry Allah is just and forgiving and she gets to be locked into her house and allowed to starve to death." Chances are, even if he were the father he'd justs get a few nudges from his peers: "Eh, Mahmud, you got some eh old boy!"
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