Sudan: woman at risk of death sentence for converting to Christianity

May 15, 2014

A Sudanese court has found a 27-year-old woman guilty of apostasy and has been given until May 15 to renounce her Christian faith.

Ahmed Bilal Osman, Sudan’s minister of culture and information, told Agence France-Presse that “it's not only Sudan. In Saudi Arabia, in all the Muslim countries, it is not allowed at all for a Muslim to change his religion.”

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the daughter of a Muslim father and Christian mother, maintains that she was raised a Christian.

According to Amnesty International, her case came to the attention of authorities when her relatives denounced her for marrying a Christian from South Sudan. Because Sudanese law views marriages between Muslims and non-Muslim as adulterous, Ibrahim was also found guilty of adultery and faces a penalty of 100 lashes.

 

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Further information:

• Document - Sudan: Mother At Risk Of Flogging And Death Sentence: Meriam Yehya Ibrahim (Amnesty International)
• 'Deep concern' over apostasy case in Islamist Sudan (AFP)