Two lovers, Fatima Usman and Ahmed Ibrahim, convicted...

Two lovers, Fatima Usman and Ahmed Ibrahim, convicted to death for adultery in a Niger State Sharia court are to remain in jail following the adjournment of their bail hearing to October 22. Ibrahim, 35, and Usman, 32, are being held in a federal jail and were not brought to court for the hearing, nor are they aware of the severe punishment they are facing. Officials did not explain why the couple could not be told. Ibrahim is the first man to be sentenced to death for adultery in Nigeria. Previously only women were prosecuted and their children used as evidence. This is the latest in a series of judgments handed out by Sharia courts in Nigeria and which have provoked concern amongst human rights groups around the world. Nigeria's northern states have introduced Islamic punishments into the criminal code over the past three years. In that time, at least five death-by-stoning sentences have been passed, none of which has yet been carried out. This is in large measure due to the pressure being put on Nigeria by foreign governments and human rights groups. But defence lawyers are increasingly concerned that it is only a matter of time before one of the majority Muslim northern states decides to carry out such a sentence. This latest case involves a couple originally imprisoned for the offence of adultery. But at an appeal hearing, the judge imposed the death sentence, arguing that the earlier court had used the wrong penal code to try the case. The woman, Fatima, has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, allegedly fathered by the man, Ibrahim, outside marriage. Both are currently in jail serving the earlier five-year sentence. According to Fatima's lawyers, she is not only very unwell, but also now eight months pregnant with another child, this time by her former husband from whom she is now divorced. More than any other, this case highlights the concerns of human rights activists that such cases have been poorly handled by the Islamic courts. The lawyer who will represent Fatima and Ibrahim at the bail hearing, Hauwa Ibrahim, said that not only were the couple not present in the courtroom for the trial, but they have not been informed of the verdict. The Federal Government has said it is opposed to such sentences being carried out, but that it has no powers to intervene in judgments handed down by Islamic courts.