A 27-year-old woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death after refusing to recant her Christian faith.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who is eight months pregnant and has a 20-month-old son, appeared in court in Khartoum. She was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes, since Sharia law does not consider marriage to a Christian man to be valid.
The act of apostasy or renouncing your religion is a crime in Sudan, something that Amnesty International is fighting against.
'Adultery' and 'apostasy' are acts which should not be considered crimes at all, let alone meet the international standard of "most serious crimes" in relation to the death penalty,' Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher, told CNN. 'It is a flagrant breach of international human rights law.
‘The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is abhorrent and should never be even considered.’
Ibrahim’s dad, a Sudanese Muslim, left when she was six years old, and she was raised by her Christian mother. The courts consider her to be Muslim, since that was her father’s religion.
It is unlikely she will be flogged or executed until after the baby is born. Her lawyers are appealing the sentence.
Sharia law punishes people of all religions using amputations and floggings.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.