HANDS OFF CAIN CALLS FOR MASS PARTICIPATION IN MISS WORLD CONTEST

Miss Sweden and Miss Italy are promoting HOC’s appeal for participation in the Abuja contest, that will be broadcast to 140 countries worldwide, as a better means of campaigning for the reversal of Amina Lawal’s death-by-stoning sentence rather than a boycott.
Amina, a divorced 31-year-old was condemned to death for adultery in March by a lower Sharia court in Katsina after giving birth to a girl, Wasila. A Sharia court of Appeals confirmed her death sentence in August.
Stoning as punishment for sex crimes has drawn a barrage of international criticism on Nigeria and calls for a boycott of the Miss World contest have been made by various groups.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has given assurances that the country´s higher appeal courts would quash the death-by-stoning sentences for adultery passed by Islamic courts.
Obasanjo said in a radio and television broadcast to mark Nigeria´s 42nd independence anniversary on October 1 that Amina Lawal and a couple condemned to death by Muslim courts can launch appeals at the Supreme Court where they will be guaranteed justice.
"We have never entertained doubts that whatever verdict a lower court may give, the appellate courts will ensure that justice is done," he said.
"We fully understand the concerns of Nigerians and friends of Nigeria, but we cannot imagine or envision a Nigerian being stoned to death," Obasanjo said. "It has never happened. And may it never happen."
HOC confides in President Obasanjo’s assurances for a positive resolution of Amina’s case as it had in Safiya Hussaini’s case, who was condemned to death in a similar case last year and acquitted in March.
HOC’s annual report on capital punishment: The Death Penalty Worldwide: 2002 Report is in fact dedicated to President Obasanjo in recognition of his commitment to the abolitionist cause and his firm leadership in the positive resolution of Ms Hussaini’s case.
The Death Penalty Worldwide: 2002 Report was launched at the European Parliament premises in Brussels on October 9.