Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he had expressed...

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he had expressed to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo his concern over the case of a mother sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. A Nigerian court in August rejected an appeal by Amina Lawal Kurami against her conviction for bearing a child out of wedlock and confirmed her sentence under Islamic sharia law, drawing a barrage of international criticism.
Radio Australia said Howard, in Nigeria as chair of a special Commonwealth committee on Zimbabwe, spent almost an hour with the Nigerian president discussing what he said was an important case.
"I had already raised it in a letter and I raised it personally in my discussion with President Obasanjo last night," Howard was quoted as saying.
Kurami was sentenced to death in March by a lower court in her state of Katsina, which like a number of others in northern Nigeria has adopted strict Islamic sharia law.