A pregnant Nigerian student was released from custody and given temporary stay in Cyprus on Wednesday after she applied for asylum, fearing death by stoning in her homeland for having a child out of wedlock.
Atanda Fatimo, who is 21 and seven months pregnant, was arrested after she was sent back to Cyprus on the next available flight when she tried to enter Ireland on a forged British passport on August 17.
The woman was remanded in police custody for two days after appearing at a Larnaca court on Monday.
The Cyprus College computer student compared her case with the plight of fellow Muslim Amina Lawal Kurami, 30, sentenced to death by an Islamic court in Nigeria for having a child outside marriage.
Under Sharia law, punishment for adultery is death by stoning.
”It’s an unjust law…one thing is for sure, I will never go back to Nigeria,” Fatimo told reporters after leaving jail on Wednesday.
”I hope for a normal pregnancy and the best care for my child,” she added.
Deputy Attorney General Petros Clerides said Fatimo never applied to have her student permit renewed when it expired in June.
Instead, she opted to fly to Dublin from Cyprus to give birth so that her child could get automatic Irish citizenship.
”She chose to go to Ireland because she was told that if her child is born there, it would get Irish citizenship and she would be allowed to stay,” Clerides told state radio.
Under normal circumstances, the Nigerian would be deported, but the fact she might face the death penalty back home has made the Cypriot authorities think again.
”What government official, either a minister or the attorney general or an immigration officer, would send someone to their death?” asked Clerides.
”There was never any question of deporting her to Nigeria,” he added.
Clerides said that the woman could, at a later stage, even apply for Cypriot citizenship.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian will be staying at Cyprus College student accommodations in Nicosia where her sister is also enrolled.
As an asylum seeker, the woman is entitled to certain state benefits and free medical care, said local human rights activist Doros Polycarpou who has taken up her case.
However, Fatimo is due to appear before a Cypriot court to answer charges of travelling on a fake passport for which she allegedly paid 600 euros. – Sapa-AFP