Appalling

Stuff reports:

A Muslim-by-birth Sudanese woman who married a Christian man has been sentenced to death after she refused to recant her Christian faith, her lawyer says.

Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim but her mother was an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia, was convicted of “apostasy” – literally the rejection of a religion – on Sunday (local time) and given four days to repent and escape death, lawyer Al-Shareef Ali al-Shareef Mohammed said.

The 26 year old, who is eight months pregnant, was sentenced after that grace period expired, Mohammed said.

The sentence drew immediate condemnation from Amnesty International, which called it “abhorrent.” Mohammed called the conviction rushed and legally flawed since the judge refused to hear key defence witnesses, as well as ignored constitutional provisions on freedom of worship and equality among citizens.

“The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered,” Amnesty said in a statement, quoting its Sudan researcher, Manar Idriss.

Maybe the UN Human Rights Commission could focus on this.

No state should be imposing any sanctions on a citizen for their choice of religion, let alone the death sentence. No state that does so, should be allowed a vote in international fora.