A Nigerian Islamic court will pronounce its verdict on Thursday on single mother Amina Lawal’s appeal against a sentence she be stoned to death for adultery, court officials said.
”As we gathered before, so we are gathering tomorrow to deliver our judgement to the world. We want the world to see the wisdom in Sharia,” said the Appeal Court’s chief registrar, Dalhatu Salmanu Abubakar.
Last year Lawal was convicted of adultery after she bore her fourth child, her daughter Wasila, out of wedlock. Adultery carries a death sentence under northern Nigeria’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Since then, the 31-year-old divorcee has become the world’s best known symbol of the dispute within Nigeria over the reintroduction of a penal code many regard as harsh and out of place in a newly democratic republic.
But Abubakar insisted that when Grand Khadi Aminu Ibrahim, the trial judge and Katsina State’s highest Islamic legal authority, convenes his hearing on Thursday, the world would see justice at work.
”Since March last year, after Amina was convicted, she has been moving freely, since Sharia is not oppressive,” he told reporters.
”Even if the death sentence is confirmed tomorrow, she won’t be executed until her child reaches two years old, ” he said. Wasila’s second birthday will fall on January 6 next year.
Lawal’s defence team attended the court on both Tuesday and Wednesday amid rumours that the judgement might be brought forward.
But on Wednesday, Lawal’s counsel Aliyu Musa Yawuri said outside the court that the hearing was expected to take place as originally scheduled on Thursday.
”We are here to make sure there are no logistical difficulties that have to be overcome,” he said. ”We will make adequate provision that Amina be able to attend court tomorrow.”
A member of Lawal’s support team, Amina Adams Aligamhe, said that the mother-of-four had arrived in Katsina, 180 kilometres north of her home in the village of Kurami, and was staying at a hotel.
If she loses again she will remain on course to become the first Nigerian to be stoned to death in the three years since 12 mainly-Muslim states in the north of the giant west African country began to reintroduce Sharia law.
But she can still appeal, to the federal appeals court in the northern city of Kaduna, which covers the northwest of the country, and eventually to the supreme court in Abuja. ‒ AFP
