Christian Woman in Sudan Was Sentenced to Hang-Truth!

Christian Woman in Sudan Was Sentenced to Hang-Truth!

Summary of eRumor:

This is a forwarded email about a young pregnant doctor named Mariam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, who has been found guilty in Sudan of the crime of apostasy. She has been charged with being raised Muslim and converting to Christianity. This crime carries a sentenced of death by hanging in Sudan. Ibrahim, claims that she has been a Christian all her life.
 

The Truth:

This is true, according to a May 22, 2014, article by Open Doors, an international non-profit ministry that reports on religious persecution throughout the world.

On June 23, 2014, the French news agency, France 24, reported that Ibrahim was released today.   The BBC also confirmed this in an article that said Daniel Wani, her husband, told reporters that “he was looking forward to seeing her,” and added that he “wanted his family to leave Sudan as soon possible.”

Hours after her release the family was arrested at the Khartoum airport on allegations that Ibrahim was travelling on falsified documents. The family are now being held in jail pending a trial. She could be facing 7 years on these new charges, according to a June 26 article by the Daily Mail. The family was later released on the condition that Ibrahim remains in Sudan, according to a June 26 article by the Guardian.

In late May, 2014, reports of a reprieve went viral on the Net after a Sudanese foreign ministry official told reporters at the BBC that “authorities are to free a woman who was sentenced to death for having abandoned the Islamic faith.”   As of June 2, 2014, Ibrahim and her child remain in prison awaiting for the sentence to be carried out.

The Open Doors article said

Mariam Yehya Ibrahim was originally arrested for suspicion of committing adultery in September 2013. Authorities received an  anonymous tip alleging that she was cohabitating with a Christian man. That man turned out to be her husband, Daniel Wani, who also practices medicine and holds dual South Sudanese and U.S. citizenship. The couple were married in 2012 at a church in Khartoum. Sudanese law states that Muslim women are only permitted to marry Muslim men. Ibrahim’s father was a Muslim, so the authorities considered her to be a Muslim as well, therefore would not recognize her marriage to a Christian.

At her trial, Ibrahim tried to produce evidence and witnesses to prove that she was a lifelong Christian and that her late mother was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. The court refused to allow the witnesses to testify.

The sentence is expected to be carried out after her baby has been born and weaned. Ibrahim was also sentenced to receive 100 lashes for the charge of adultery.

Amnesty International filed an appeal with the Sudanese government and had a petition for people to sign on its website, which drew more than half a million signatures. 

Posted 05/27/14  Updated 06/26/14