a Sharia court in Bauchi, Nigeria, overturned a death sentence imposed on Daso Adamu

a Sharia court in Bauchi, Nigeria, overturned a death sentence imposed on Daso Adamu, a 29-year-old woman who gave birth after a divorce and was convicted of adultery, her lawyer said.   Daso was acquitted by the Upper Sharia court in Ningi after the judge, Yusuf Suleiman, ruled that her being pregnant was not enough evidence to warrant a sentence that she be stoned to death.
“The court faulted the lower court’s judgement, saying that since Daso became pregnant within two years of her divorce it was wrong to assume the pregnancy was illegal because there is the possibility that the pregnancy was from her former husband”, defence counsel Abdulkadir Suleiman said. Under the interpretation of Sharia in force in much of Northern Nigeria, it is regarded as possible that a “dormant pregnancy” might last up to five years from the end of a marriage.
Once a woman is married any sexual relation she conducts with a man other than her husband is considered adultery, even if she has divorced. “The court further argued that her trial in court was improper because she didn’t present herself to court but was dragged and tried against her wish,” Suleiman added, speaking from Bauchi in a telephone interview. Adamu, who had been married five times, was sentenced to death by stoning in July 2004 by a lower Sharia court after she gave birth to her daughter, Dije. She challenged the sentence with the help of a women’s rights group, Baobab, which paid for the legal services of the defence counsel.