New Zealand lawmakers of all parties wrote to Nigeria's...

New Zealand lawmakers of all parties wrote to Nigeria's president urging him to overturn the sentence of death by stoning imposed on a woman for having a child out of wedlock. Graham Kelly, a Labour Party legislator and chairperson of New Zealand's Amnesty International Parliamentary Group, said 115 of the nation's 120 lawmakers from all parties signed the letter. Amina Lawal was convicted in March by an Islamic court in northern Nigeria after she had given birth more than nine months after divorcing her husband. Her execution was later postponed until January 2004 to allow her to finish weaning her baby.
The letter stated that the sentence is "particularly cruel, inhuman and degrading," contravenes the Nigerian constitution and international declarations signed by Nigeria. It does not name the declarations. "Not only is the death penalty wrong, it is more offensive because the reason given is that this woman had a child out of wedlock," Kelly said in a statement. "In addition, the sentence of death is to be carried out by stoning, while she is buried up to her waist," he added.