Former US President Bill Clinton expressed hope that...

Former US President Bill Clinton expressed hope that the Nigerian legal system would find a way of pardoning Amina Lawal. "I hope and pray that the legal system will find a way to pardon a young woman convicted to death for bearing a child out of wedlock," Clinton said in a public lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs to an audience that included Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.The plea was personal, "as a fellow human being," and not "on behalf of the United States government," the former president stressed. Lawal, 31, was sentenced in March, after she gave birth to a girl. An Islamic appeals court upheld the judgment in August although her lawyers have since launched a second appeal. Clinton said he hoped Lawal's case would end in a similar way as that of Safiya Husseini, the first Nigerian woman to be similarly tried and sentenced. Husseini successfully appealed her conviction in March. "This is something you've done once before and I hope it will happen again," he said. Clinton said Islam had a tradition of "protecting such rights for women and protecting children." Prophet Mohammed, the religion's founder, was married to a successful businesswoman, a sign he respected women, the former US president added. "I can tell you the world will be cheering" if Lawal is released, Clinton said. "It is a small thing for a great nation to forgive."