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Nigerian mother escapes stoning sentence
An Islamic Sharia court in northern Nigeria has overturned a death sentence imposed on a 29-year-old woman, who gave birth after a divorce and was convicted of adultery. Daso Adamu was acquitted by the upper Sharia court after the judge, Yusuf Suleiman, ruled that her being pregnant was not enough evidence to warrant a sentence that she be stoned to death. "The court faulted the lower court's judgement, saying that since Daso became pregnant within two years of her divorce it was wrong to assume the pregnancy was illegal because there is the possibility that the pregnancy was from her former husband," defence counsel Abdulkadir Suleiman said.Under the interpretation of Sharia, which is in force in much of northern Nigeria, it is regarded as possible that a "dormant pregnancy" might last up to five years from the end of a marriage. Once a woman is married any sexual relations she conducts with a man other than her husband is considered adultery, even if she has divorced. "The court further argued that her trial in court was improper because she didn't present herself to court but was dragged and tried against her wish," Mr Suleiman said. Ms Adamu, who has been married five times and is a mother of three, was sentenced to death by stoning last July by a lower Sharia court after she gave birth to her daughter, Dije. She challenged the sentence with the help of a women's rights group, Baobab, which paid for the legal services of the defence counsel. Ms Adamu's acquittal comes one month after 18-year-old Hajara Ibrahim also escaped a death sentence when the Dass upper Sharia court acquitted her of having had sex outside marriage. Ms Adamu was the sixth woman to be sentenced to death for adultery since the state reintroduced the Sharia legal system two years ago, although none of the sentences has yet been carried out. Allahu Fuckbar ! Posted by: God Save The World 2004-12-11 |
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