No monetary settlement paid to Sudan ‘apostasy’ woman: U.S. attorney
February 1, 2023 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese woman who filed a lawsuit in U.S. court against the government in Khartoum dropped the case without receiving any kind of monetary settlement in return, her attorney told Sudan Tribune.
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag asked the district court in DC to make a finding that she was subject to emotional physical distress and order the Sudanese government to pay her punitive and solatium damages.
Ishag was sentenced to death by hanging in May 2014 after being convicted in Sudanese courts for the charge of apostasy.
She was also sentenced to 100 lashes for being in an unrecognized marital union with a non-Muslim husband.
But Ishag argued before the Sudanese judges that she was raised by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother after her Muslim dad abandoned the family and therefore was never a Muslim.
A Sudanese appeal court subsequently overturned the verdict and the sentence amid an international outcry. She quickly left the country and eventually settled in the U.S. with her then-South Sudanese husband and children.
In March 2021 Ishag brought the lawsuit against Khartoum under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) which allows individuals to sue governments that are designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Even though Sudan was no longer on that terrorism list at the time of the suit, Ishag said that the case remains valid because it was still made within 6-month of the last designation.
However, the lawyers representing the Sudanese government asked the judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that the court does not have jurisdiction because the United States, through an act of congress, restored the country’s sovereign immunity thus stripping the likes of Ishag from the ability to sue Sudan.
They also told the court that the government of Sudan was not properly served with the lawsuit as required by the law which would deem any subsequent actions by the court void. The lawyers noted that the US Supreme court overturned a multi-million ruling against Sudan in 2019 because the lawsuit was delivered to the embassy in Washington rather than to the minister of foreign affairs in Khartoum.
Judge Carl J. Nichols who is presiding over Ishag’s case asked her to respond to Sudan’s motion by Tuesday, January 31st.
But Ishag’s lawyer asked the court yesterday to dismiss the case “with prejudice” which means she cannot refile the same claim again in that court. No reason was given for the abrupt move.
(ST)