Sudan Christian woman faces new legal challenge: lawyer
KHARTOUM - Muslim "relatives" of a Sudanese Christian woman hiding at the US embassy are taking her to court to try to prove she belongs to their family, a lawyer said Tuesday.
She " belongs " to them, they think they own her in other words.
The complainants are the same people who laid an apostasy charge against Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26, said the lawyer, Mohanad Mustafa.
Ishag was sentenced to death in May for apostasy from Islam, under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
Sudan refuses to learn from even its recent history.
"....Sudan became a single-party state under the National Congress Party (NCP). During the 1990s, Hassan al-Turabi, then Speaker of the National Assembly, reached out to Islamic fundamentalist groups, even personally inviting Osama bin Laden to the country.The United States subsequently listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S bombed Sudan in 1998. ..."
An appeals court later quashed the verdict and sentence.
Something that totally fails to impress me.
" Twelve days after the verdict, Ishag gave birth to a daughter at the women's prison in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman."They removed the chains" after she delivered, one of her lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa said.
"This is on order by the doctor."
Her case raised questions of religious freedom and sparked deep concern among Western governments and human rights activists.
Wrong. The this case fucking appalled the world. Sure some Muslim morons probably thought the death penalty it was a good result. Don't try and paint this as just " The West ".
"In fact, it is not her family" who filed the cases, Mustafa told AFP. "They want to get her in trouble. Somebody supports them. I can't mention who."
Why not ? Lets find out which scumbags are behind this, lets examine their lives under a bloody microscope for any breaches of the bogus legal code called Sharia Law. That might actually provide a sort of justice but certainly some belly laughs if it resulted in a bit of religious brutality inflicted on the so called family.
Mustafa confirmed that a case has been lodged against Ishag in family court "to prove that Meriam is Abrar and she is one of the family."
Muslims refer to her as Abrar al-Hadi Mohamed Abdalla.
Neither Ishag nor her lawyers have yet received documents confirming when the case will be heard, Mustafa said.
"I think the court will dismiss the case," he added.
I wouldn't count on that at all. It would seem far more likely that the Sharia court will impose another brutal sentence that will probably amount to a crime against humanity. It would be good to see the ICC issuing a few indictments for the so called judges.
It is not a criminal action, meaning it would not affect her chances of travelling abroad.
Being stoned to death I suspect might have a rather limiting effect on overseas travel.
Ishag is, however, charged criminally with forgery and providing false information in relation to a South Sudanese travel document she used last week while trying to leave Sudan for the United States, a day after the appeals court ruling.
The Sudanese Government are of course bloody insane. The document she used it would seem was a legitimate visa issued by the American Embassy
" On 24 June 2014 Meriam Ibrahim was released on the order of a Sudanese appeal court. The following day, as she and her family were to board a plane to the United States, she and her family were arrested and taken from the airport to Khartoum for questioning following a tip-off to the police by her half brother. The US Ambassador was summoned in protest at the granting of an exit visa, described by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry as 'a criminal violation'. Meriam Ibrahim was freed again on the 26th June 2014 and took refuge in the United States embassy with her family. "
On Sunday, lawyers asked prosecutors to dismiss the forgery-related charges.
Mustafa said that would leave Ishag and her family -- including a baby daughter born while she was on death row -- free to leave the country.
Letting her leave the country would have been the smart thing to do. The choice for the Sudanese Government now comes down to humiliation followed by further humiliation.
Ishag's American husband Daniel Wani has said threats forced the family to go into hiding and seek the embassy's protection.
A man claiming to be her brother has stated that the family would carry out the death sentence if she were acquitted, according to Christian activists.
Which would seem to me like a fairly good reason to hole up at the US embassy. Should the clown claiming to be her brother / half brother ever venture into the world I hope like fuck there is a arrest warrant from INTERPOL/ ICC waiting for him.
Ishag was born to a Muslim father who abandoned the family, leaving her to be raised by her Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.
The case has re-focussed attention on a country which has slipped from the international spotlight but where an 11-year-old war and other unrest continues in Darfur, government troops and rebels are fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and millions of people need humanitarian aid.
Sudan... focusing on things that matter.
