/ 28 March 2002

Second Nigerian woman sentenced to stoning

Kano, Sokoto, Nigeria | Monday

AN Islamic court in northern Nigeria on Monday acquitted 35-year-old Safiya Husaini, lifting her sentence of death by stoning for adultery and clearing her of all charges, but now another woman has been sentenced to a grisly death for a similar offence

Mohammed Tambari-Uthman, the chief judge of the Upper Sharia Court of Sokoto, dismissed all charges against Husaini, whose conviction last year provoked international outrage and considerable concern in Nigeria.

The court took two hours to read the judgement, delivered a week after the last hearing in the case.

Husaini was found guilty of adultery by a lower Islamic court last October for giving birth out of wedlock.

Meanwhile, a court at Bakori in Katsina State on Friday sentenced Amina Lawal to die after she confessed to having had a child while divorced, state officials said.

The news of the conviction and sentencing came minutes after another court in the northwest city of Sokoto dismissed adultery charges against Husaini. – Sapa