NIGERIA SHARIA COURT HEARS SAFIYA’S APPEAL

last October Safiya became the first person to be sentenced to death by stoning since the introduction of harsh criminal punishments such as stoning and amputation for theft were introduced into the legal code in many of Nigeria´s majority Muslim northern states over the past two years.
Amputations have been carried out, but no one has yet been stoned to death.
Safiya´s case has attracted a great deal of attention, both inside Nigeria and abroad and worldwide calls for clemency appear to have softened the resolve of the local authorities to carry out the punishment.
It is also a very sensitive issue within Nigeria, a country with a large Christian, as well as Muslim, population.
Safiya Husaini, who is 35 years old, is not being held in prison. Under Islamic law she is free to live with her family until she either wins her appeal or is taken away to be stoned to death for the crime of adultery.
She was convicted because she had borne a child out of wedlock. The little girl, Adama, is a year old. Safiya herself is not married, but as a divorcee she is still considered to have committed adultery and not the lesser crime of fornication.
The penalty for fornication, which applies only to women who have never been married, carries the lesser punishment of one hundred or so lashes.
Safiya´s lawyer is appealing against the conviction on the grounds that her former husband is the child´s father, although they divorced almost seven years ago.
Under Islamic law this can be used as a valid defence, if, that is, the judge believes her. On Saturday, European Union leaders called on the court to throw out the ruling and said the authorities should "fully respect human rights and human dignity with particular reference to women".
Although President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is a devout Christian, has made it clear he would prefer the sentence not to be carried out, the final decision rests with a panel of judges at a Sharia court in Sokoto.
However, if Safiya does lose this appeal she can take it further - right up to the Supreme Court in the Nigerian federal capital, Abuja.