Failed Stoning Appeal
Nigerian Court Upholds Woman’s Death by Stoning Sentence
The Associated Press
F U N T U A, Nigeria, Aug. 19 — An Islamic high court in northern Nigeria rejected an appeal today by a single mother sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.
Clutching her baby daughter, Amina Lawal burst into tears as the judge delivered the ruling.
Lawal, 30, was first sentenced in March after giving birth to a daughter more than nine months after divorcing.
"We uphold the judgment from the lower court," Judge Aliyu Abdullahi said on behalf of four judges at the Islamic high court at Funtua, in Nigeria's northern Katsina state.
Many of the 60 people who packed the small courtroom shouted "God is great!" in the Hausa dialect, as Lawal wept.
The judge said the sentence would be carried out as soon as Lawal finishes breast feeding her baby. In June, the court postponed her execution until January 2004 for this reason.
Second Such Case
Lawal was given 30 days to appeal the ruling and released on bail. Her lawyers said they would take the case to a higher court.
Lawal declined to speak to journalists outside the court.
She is the second Nigerian woman condemned to death for having sex out of wedlock since Islamic law, or Shariah, was introduced in a dozen northern states.
The first, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March by an Islamic appeals court in the northern city of Sokoto.
President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has declared Shariah punishments such as beheadings, stonings and amputations unconstitutional.
Some predominantly Muslim northern states, which began instituting Shariah shortly after civilian rule replaced military dictatorship in 1999, have accused him of meddling.
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