Freedom At Last For Sudanese Mom Placed On Death Row For Marrying A Christian
Mother of 2, Meriam Ibrahim is seen at the back seat of a car, yesterday night, cradling her new born in her arms as they drive away from what would have been her death at the prison in Sudan. It has been a long scary journey to freedom for this Christian mother.
According to Daily Mail UK;
Dr Ibrahim had been arrested at Khartoum airport on Tuesday as she and her American husband Daniel Wani tried to leave the country.
The mother-of-two, who had been facing a death sentence for converting to Christianity, was accused of trying to use forged travel documents when she presented airport staff with emergency paperwork issued by the U.S. embassy and South Sudan.
The 27-year-old doctor is expected to fly to South Sudan with her husband and two young children, before making her way to the U.S. to start a new life.
She has endured nine months of imprisonment after being jailed for adultery and apostasy, for which she was sentenced to death and 100 lashes.
Dr Ibrahim, who gave birth to her daughter while shackled to a prison floor last month, had finally been freed from the death sentence on Monday but her hopes of escape were quickly cut short.
When she arrived at the airport she was taken back into custody, causing concern for her family and human rights campaigners who had fought for her release.
Her lawyer, Eman Abdul-Rahman, said she was freed on Thursday after pressure from foreign diplomats moved the government to release her.
Campaigners however have urged caution and said that they will wait until Meriam actually gets out of Sudan before celebrating.
The US State Department is now under pressure to do everything in its power to ensure her swift and safe passage after being criticized by Senators for its response.
Dr Ibrahim’s release appeared chaotic as the Associated Press initially said she had been freed, only for multiple media outlets and MailOnline sources to say that she was in fact being kept in for another three days.
Hours later it was revealed that she was being freed.
The Guardian said that Eman Abdul-Rahman, one of her lawyers, said she had been released from a police station in the capital Khartoum after pressure from foreign diplomats on the Sudanese government to free her.
Also in custody with her in the police station cell in the Sudanese capital Khartoum was her husband and their two children, Maya, one month, and Martin, 21 months.
Dr Ibrahim was charged with obtaining a false travel document and giving false information to immigration officials – and banned from leaving Sudan.
The move was another twist of the knife as she tried to get to America with her two children where she can live with her husband, a US citizen, from Manchester, New Hampshire.
Mr Wani was also locked up with them as an ‘accessory’ at the Al Sheradee police station in Khartoum after being confronted at Khartoum airport by 40 agents of the feared National Intelligence and Security Services.
It is believed they were trying to travel to Washington DC and Sudanese media have claimed that the US vice consul was with the family at the airport.
A diplomatic row erupted at the escape from Sudan and the Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the American and South Sudanese ambassadors to explain themselves.
Dr Ibrahim had been granted emergency travel documents by the government of South Sudan to travel there and then on to the US.
Mr Shareif insisted that the documents were legitimate and that it was ‘not right’ to claim otherwise.
Dr Ibrahim was released from the grim Omdurman Women’s Prison on Monday after nine months in custody.
A judge had ruled that she had broken strict Islamic law by failing to renounce her Christian faith and become a Muslim.
On Monday an appeal court overturned her conviction after an international outcry but on Tuesday she and her family were detained again.
They had been staying at a safe house because of threats to her life from her ‘family’.
A man claiming to be Dr Ibrahim’s half brother went to the prison in Khartoum the night she was released and, upon discovering she had been freed, flew into a rage and vowed to kill her.
According to CNN, al-Samani al-Hadi, said: ‘The family is unconvinced by the court’s decision.
‘We were not informed by the court that she was to be released; this came as a surprise to us. The law has failed to uphold our rights. This is now an issue of honour. The Christians have tarnished our honour, and we will know how to avenge it.’
Speaking to Sudanese paper, al-Samani al-Hadi, said that Dr Ibrahim had been ‘kidnapped’ from the family who she should have been returned to, not her husband.
She said the department was talking to Sudanese officials to ‘secure their safe and swift departure from Sudan’.
Source: Daily Mail UK