HOC URGES UN MORATORIUM AS AMINA´S STONING APPEAL IS SET FOR MARCH

Amina’s case caused an international uproar last year that mobilised huge public awareness of the death penalty.
“Based on past reaction to Amina’s plight, we can foresee a great mobilisation in her support, and whilst we continue to followed her case closely, we want to draw international attention to the plight of many other women stoned to death in Iran, and the many people on death rows around the world who attract very little backing,” an HOC press statement said.
“We shall intensify our efforts to save Amina and all other people condemned to die and we call for the support of all abolitionist countries at the UN Commission for Human Rights due to convene in Geneva from March 17 to April 25. In particular we call on the European Union to spearhead our campaign for a universal moratorium on executions both at the UNCHR and the UN General Assembly in New York later this year.
“We are aiming to obtain at the 2003 General Assembly a solemn and politically-binding undertaking by the UN for a global moratorium on executions.”
On Thursday, a Nigerian Islamic court ruled that Amina Lawal, the Nigerian woman sentenced to be stoned to death for bearing a child out of wedlock, will begin her latest appeal on March 25, AFP reported.
The village housewife´s case has sparked massive controversy both inside and outside Nigeria, and sharpened the already bitter debate over the decision by 12 northern states to reintroduce a hardline version of Islamic Sharia law.
Lawal sat huddled on one side of Katsina´s Sharia Appeal Court, cuddling her baby daughter Wasila, whose birth in March last year caused the 31-year-old divorcee to be denounced in her home village as an adultress.
After a brief hearing, Katsina State´s top Sharia official, Grand Khadi Aminu Ibrahim, adjourned proceedings until March 25.
In doing so, he refused a request by the prosecution to be given six months to prepare its case -- a delay which would have pushed the controversial trial beyond Nigeria´s upcoming general and presidential elections, which are set for April.
"Adjournment is unnecessary because my client has been left in suspense for a year without knowing her fate. It is high time she knows her fate, whether she lives or dies," defence lawyer Aliyu Musa Yawuri told the court.
Prosecutor Hamza Kurfi said: "We pray the court to give us up to July to study the records of proceedings, which we got only yesterday, and to allow us to consult with clerics for advice.
"Because a life is at stake, the case should be treated with care," he added. Lawal´s defenders are employing a two-pronged defence in which they will say her conviction was unsafe because Sharia´s own strict safeguards were ignored and also that applying Sharia in criminal cases is in breach of Nigeria´s constitution.