{{The Sudanese foreign ministry denied a statement attributed to its Undersecretary Abdallah Alazrag in which he announced that the government will seek to free a woman sentenced to death for apostasy within the next few days.}}
“The lady will be freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be taken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice,” Alazrag told press.
“She will definitely not be executed. I am sure about this,” he to media today.
The Sudanese diplomat made similar statements to BBC and Reuters.
Alazrag, who was Khartoum’s ex-ambassador to London, has been staying in Britain for some time seeking medical treatment.
He did not specify how the 27-year-old Meriam Yehya Ibrahim would be released despite a court conviction which a lawyer told local media can only be overturned by appeals court or a clemency issued by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir.
In a statement to CNN, Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Abu Bakr al-Sideeg, said he was unaware of any plans to release Ibrahim “before a ruling from an appeals court”.
The court convicted Ibrahim, who is in custody with her 20-month-old son and her newborn baby, of the charges on May 11th and gave her three days to return to Islam.
The judge also sentenced Ibrahim to 100 lashes after convicting her of adultery as under Sudan’s Islamic Shar’ia law her marriage to a non-Muslim is considered invalid and therefore an adulterous relationship.
The ruling drew widespread condemnation by Western governments and human right groups.
Ibrahim’s lawyer Elshareef Ali Elshareef Mohammed told UK-based Channel 4 News today that she is currently being held in the hospital ward of a prison that is overcrowded and “not a proper place” for a new mother. Ibrahim gave birth to her baby daughter this week with her feet chained together, he added.
He further stressed said that any decision to release her would have to be made by an appeal court, not a government official, and that it would take months, rather than days, to process the appeal.
He accused Alazrag of making false statements to pacify the media and fend off international pressure.
“One person in the UK (Alazrag) saw the UK media, and wanted to stop the campaign (for her release),” the lawyer said.
sudantribune
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