A Nigerian Islamic court postponed the start of mother-of-three Amina Lawal’s appeal against being stoned to death at a brief hearing here on Tuesday.
Defence lawyer Musa Aliyu Yawuri said that he had agreed with state prosecutors that the controversial case be adjourned until June 3 after only two members of a four man panel of judges turned up.
The new date will push the politically explosive trial back until after next month’s national elections. Lawal, a 31-year-old village housewife, sat impassively in the court in a green dress and headscarf, cradling her baby Wasila, whose birth outside of wedlock last year caused her to be denounced as an adulteress.
Twelve states in northern Nigeria have controversially re-adopted the Sharia criminal code since Nigeria’s 1999 return to civilian rule. – Sapa-AFP