Nigerian Islamic prosecutors seek death penalty for Christian converts

Lawali Yakubu and Ali Jafaru have been given three days to re-convert by an Islamic court judge in Mada.
They are accused of joining the Great Commission Movement, an international evangelical church with a strong following in Nigeria.
Sharia court judge Auwal Jabaka said the Koran calls for the execution of Muslims who accept another religion.
But he said it is unclear whether the state´s two-year-old Shariah penal code also permits such a punishment.
Jabaka adjourned the court for three days to allow the accused to "change their minds" and convert back to Islam.
In the meantime, he called on the Zamfara government to clarify its position on the matter.
"If the law empowers me to (execute the two for converting from Islam to Christianity), I will have no hesitation in doing that," the judge said.
Yakubu and Jafaru were not represented by lawyers but were instead accompanied by fellow church members.
The two argued they had never been Muslims, but were instead members of the Magazawa, a Hausa subgroup that has long practised Christianity. The overwhelming majority of Hausas - one of Nigeria´s largest tribes - are Muslim.
The case was believed to be the first of its kind since a dozen predominantly Muslim northern states began implementing Shariah law in early 2000, despite virulent opposition from mainly Christian and animist southerners.
In the past two years, thousands of Muslims and Christians have been killed in periodic bursts of inter-religious bloodletting.