Sudan detains Christian woman released from death row

Mariam Ibrahim and her husband

Sudanese authorities on Tuesday detained a woman sentenced to death for abandoning Islam for Christianity, a day after she was freed.

Twenty seven-year-old Mariam Ibrahim, her husband and children were detained as they tried to board a plane in Khartoum, her lawyer said.

Mrs. Ibrahim was sentenced in May to hang for renouncing Islam, sparking global outrage.

She was released by an appeal court Monday and sent to a secret location for her protection after her family reported receiving threats.

The BBC quoted Abdullahi Alzareg from Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that said Mrs. Ibrahim was detained because she did not have the correct travel documents, the BBC reported.

Although she is Sudanese, she was using emergency South Sudanese papers with a US visa, he said.

Her husband is a Christian from what is now South Sudan and has US nationality.

Sudan’s penal code criminalizes the conversion of Muslims to other religions, which is punishable by death. Muslim women in Sudan are further prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, although Muslim men are permitted to marry outside their faith. Children, by law, must follow their father’s religion.

Source: Premium Times