Nigerian junior Justice Minister Musa Elayo Abdullahi...

Nigerian junior Justice Minister Musa Elayo Abdullahi said that Nigeria cannot intervene in a legal appeal to save the life of a mother sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery by one of the country's Islamic courts.Justice Minister Musa Elayo Abdullahi was responding to a letter from 77 members of the European Parliament, who urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to save the life of Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu."It is against the rule of law of Nigeria to intervene in a matter which is under judiciary process," the minister said in a Justice Ministry statement.Hussaini, a mother of six, was convicted of adultery in October after she asked the Islamic court in the northwestern city of Sokoto to force a man she said had raped and impregnated her to pay for her infant daughter's naming ceremony.The minister said the government will respect any decision made by appeal courts on the death sentence handed down to Hussaini by an Islamic sharia court.The minister said Hussaini's case can go from the Sokoto State Sharia Court of Appeal to the federal Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court.A legal team from the federal ministry of women's affairs represented the federal government at the first day of Hussaini's appeal on January 14.Her appeal was adjourned until March 18 to give the Sokoto State Government lawyers time to prepare their response to the new grounds of appeal filed by the defence.If the Supreme Court upholds the conviction the state governor still has the power to commute the sentence, he said.