A Nigerian sharia court of appeal ordered a stay of...

A Nigerian sharia court of appeal ordered a stay of execution for a woman sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex outside of marriage, despite her contention that she was raped, officials said.
The court granted the stay to allow Safiya Hussaini, 33, a divorced mother of five, to appeal her sentence by a lower sharia court in the northwest Sokoto state.
"The judge said the execution should be put on hold until the final determination of the woman's appeal by the higher court," Sokoto state spokesman Nasirdeen Abubakar said by telephone from Sokoto, the state capital.