SAFIYA FREED, HANDS OFF CAIN CELEBRATES IN FLORENCE

Safiya Husaini won her case after the court in the northern town of Sokoto said the original ruling was unsound.
But even as the verdict was announced, a second woman was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. A court at Bakori in Katsina State sentenced Amina Lawal to die after she confessed to having had a child while divorced.
In the courtroom in Sokoto, Safiya, 35, smiling broadly, was surrounded by the world´s media as she held her one-year-old daughter in her arms. It was the conception of Safiya´s child out of wedlock that had been proof enough at the first trial of her adultery.
But in Monday´s ruling, the judge said that because the alleged act had taken place before adultery became a criminal offence under Islamic law, her case should be dismissed.
"All the procedure of the original court was wrong," said one court official, in a ruling that had been widely expected to go in favour of Hussaini.
Her case had inflamed religious tempers in Africa´s most populous nation, where hundreds have died in ethnic and religious bloodletting in recent years.
“We had expected that Safiya’s case would be resolved positively, and we’re very happy that she has been absolved,” HOC Secretary Sergio D’Elia said.
“We have never flagged in our belief in the Nigerian government and in particular President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man who during his long incarceration has seen many men walking past his jail cell on their way to the gallows.
“On his release, he wrote a book, This Animal called Man that makes a strong argument for the abolition of the death penalty. It is simply inconceivable that in President Obasanjo’s Nigeria, in 2002, a woman could be stoned to death for an action that is not a crime.
“We will continue to keep faith with Nigeria and President Obasanjo that the principles contained in the Nigerian constitution safeguarding the secular state and religious freedom off all citizens including Muslims- who should be free to practice their religion, but not coerced to do so – prevail upon the fundamentalism and the political exploitation of the Koran that the governors of the northern states seem to be practising. In fact more another woman has been condemned to death sentence by stoning.”
“Tomorrow we’re going to celebrate Safiya’s freedom in Florence in an event against the death penalty we have organised with Oliviero Toscani, Jovanotti and Enrico Ruggeri.”
The event will be held at the Stazione Leopolda on Tuesday at 21.00 CET and includes the projection of a video by controversial photographer Oliviero Toscani on Paolo Pasimeni, a 23-year-old student who killed his father on February 11 last year and confessed his crime the following day.
Toscani and popular rapper Jovanotti will discuss parent-child relationships, hate, crime and punishment with psychiatrist Paolo Crepet.
Pop-rock singer Enrico Ruggeri, the latest celebrity to endorse HOC’s campaign for a global moratorium on executions, and founding member of the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti (football association comprising pop singers that organises matches for charity) will round up the night with a concert.
The event, from an original idea by singer Leandro Barsotti in collaboration with Oliviero Toscani, has been organised by HOC and the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti with the patronage of the Regione Toscana and the RAI Social Secretariat.