ACHPR receives complaint against Sudan over apostasy case

June 3, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Five NGO’s have lodged a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) against the Sudanese government over the case of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim who was sentenced to death after being convicted of apostasy.

Ibrahim ,who is in custody with her 20-month-old son and her newborn baby girl, was handed the verdict this month after she refused to recant her faith and revert to Islam.

The judge also sentenced her to 100 lashes after convicting her of adultery as under Sudan’s Islamic Shar’ia law her marriage to a non-Muslim is considered invalid and therefore an adulterous relationship.

The case is currently undergoing appeal and the sentence cannot be carried out until at least after two years later since she is a breastfeeding mother.

UK-based REDRESS which joined the complaint, said in a press release that ruling is “outrageous” given that she is ” exercising her basic human rights”.

“We call on the African Commission to adopt urgent measures to ensure that no irreparable harm is done to Mrs. Ibrahim, including to request Sudan to immediately release her and her children from prison, and to suspend her death sentence and sentence of corporal punishment,” REDRESS said.

“Mrs Ibrahim’s case highlights the pervasive discrimination against women in Sudan, which also results in a discriminatory application of the law”.

REDRESS is joined by the African Centre of Justice and Peace Studies (ACJS), the Sudanese Organisation for Development and Rehabilitation (SODR), the Sudanese Human Rights Initiative (SHRI) and the Justice Center for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy (JCALC).

(ST)