Related: African Friday
"Sudanese woman held on new charge" by Ahmed Feteha | Bloomberg News June 25, 2014
KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Sudanese woman was arrested again Tuesday, a day after a local court overturned her death sentence for apostasy and was charged with forging travel documents, her lawyer said.
Related: Death term for Christian mother tossed
Meriam Yehia Ibrahim, 27, was detained with her husband, Daniel Wani, and two children by members of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service at the airport in the capital, Khartoum, as she tried to board a flight to leave the country, Thabit al-Zubair Soliman, one of her lawyers, said by phone. The security agents filed the charge against the couple after questioning them for about six hours, he said.
Ibrahim was traveling on a travel document issued by the South Sudanese Embassy in Khartoum, he said. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
‘‘The reason for these charges is to find a legal reason to keep Meriam inside Sudan,’’ Soliman said.
Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said he had no details about the event.
Ibrahim was released Monday when an appeals court canceled the death sentence she received in May after refusing to recant her Christian faith in favor of Islam.
Ibrahim was arrested in August after men who said they were from her father’s side of the family reportedly accused her of adultery because of her marriage to Wani, a Christian. An apostasy charge was added when she said she followed the Christian faith of her Ethiopian mother and was never a Muslim, contradicting the court, which considered her to be sharing her Sudanese father’s religion.
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"Sudanese Christian woman released" Associated Press June 27, 2014
KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Sudanese Christian woman whose death sentence for apostasy was overturned was freed again on Thursday after being detained on accusations of forging travel documents.
Wearing a traditional white and green dress, Meriam Ibrahim, 27, walked out of a Khartoum police station carrying her newborn baby hours after lawyers said she was ordered released. Ibrahim and her husband, who is disabled, got into a vehicle with their other child and sped away, followed by police cars and two vehicles with diplomatic plates.
Earlier, Ibrahim’s lawyer, Eman Abdul-Rahman, said she had been released after foreign diplomats pressed the government to free her.
Ibrahim was sentenced to death over charges of apostasy. A daughter of a Muslim father, Ibrahim was raised by her Christian mother. She married a Christian man, Daniel Wani, who holds American citizenship and is from South Sudan, in a church ceremony in 2011.
As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims. By law, children must follow their father’s religion.
Sudan’s penal code forbids Muslims from converting to other religions, a crime punishable by death.
The sentence drew international condemnation. The US State Department said it was ‘‘deeply disturbed’’ by the sentence and called on the Sudanese government to respect religious freedoms.
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"Sudanese Christian woman at US Embassy" Associated Press June 28, 2014
KHARTOUM, Sudan — The Sudanese Christian woman whose death sentence for apostasy was overturned but who was detained again this week is now at the US embassy for her own ‘‘safety,’’ her lawyer said on Friday.
ElShareef Ali Mohammed said that 27-year-old Meriam Ibrahim left a Khartoum police station the night before where she had been detained, along with her two children and husband, on charges of forging travel documents.
He added that she headed to the embassy for fear of ‘‘assault’’ by relatives or angry residents.
A US official confirmed Ibrahim is at the embassy and said diplomats are trying to arrange her departure from Sudan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media.
Her husband, Daniel Wani, who holds American and South Sudan citizenship, said authorities accused his wife of forging the documents as a pretext to justify her detention ‘‘without an arrest warrant.’’
‘‘Does it make sense that we try to fly all the way to the United States with forged passports?’’ he told the Associated Press over the phone. He declined to elaborate on details of the case.
Wani was granted US citizenship when he fled to the United States as a child to escape the civil war, but he later returned.
The Tuesday arrest took place at Khartoum airport where the family was departing the country, a day after Sudan’s Cassation Court overturned a death sentence against Ibrahim and ordered her release.
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