Pregnant teenager appeals against death by stoning sentence
A pregnant teenage mother today appealed against a sentence of death by stoning imposed on her for committing adultery in northern Nigeria where Islamic law applies.
Hajara Ibrahim’s lawyers argued for the conviction to be overturned because the 18-year-old was never married and, therefore, could not be guilty of adultery.
Judge Mohammed Mustapha Uma, sitting in the Upper Shariah Court in the rural town of Dass, said he would issue a ruling on November 10.
Ibrahim, seven months pregnant, was convicted of adultery on October 5 by an Islamic court in Bauchi state, in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north.
While Ibrahim was sentenced on account of her pregnancy, the man she says impregnated her was freed for lack of evidence.
Ibrahim’s family says she was engaged to be married to another man, but the marriage rites were never concluded.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who opposes sentences of death by stoning, has so far declined to ban such executions, which are allowed under Nigeria’s constitution.
The introduction of strict Islamic law in a dozen northern states in 1999-2000 heightened ethnic and religious tensions across the country, triggering violent clashes between Christians and Muslims that left thousands dead.
