Nigeria 
Increased pressure on Nigerian Shari'a death sentence

afrol News, 16 January - Protests from all the world keep streaming into Nigeria for the upholding of the death sentence by stoning against Safiya Hussaini, 35, a woman which is accused of adultery by an Islamic court in northern Nigeria. Today, the European Parliament joined the protests.

This morning, European Parliament member (MEP) John Corrie, won full support from all MEPs for his call that the new President of Parliament write to President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo "to press for an end to barbaric death sentences imposed in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states under recently introduced Shari'a law." Mr. Corrie is also Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the EU and politicians from 77 countries across Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific, the "ACP countries".

Earlier this week, EU parliament members had won a temporary stay of execution for Safiya Hussaini when Mr. Corrie had written to the Nigerian President on behalf of the 77 MEPs from the 15 EU Member States who sit on the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. "International human rights standards must be respected and these executions stopped. People across the world are horrified by these cases", warned Corrie.

According to a press release from Mr. Corrie, he had informed the EU Parliament of "a new case where an 18-year old girl with a one month old baby will face trial next Monday" (21 January) in Sokoto State for alleged adultery. Hafsatu Abubakar had been in prison "since 14 December 2001 and was refused bail on 9 January. If convicted, Hafsatu will be condemned to death by stoning," Mr. Corrie claims.

- The practice under Shari'a law of death by stoning is utterly barbaric, and the EU has an absolute moral duty to do all it can to ensure it is ended," Mr. Corrie's statement reads.

Earlier this month, the US group Human Rights Watch condemned the first execution under Shari'a in Nigeria, carried out on 3 January in the northern state of Katsina. "As the first execution under Shari'a in Nigeria, we fear that this may signal a willingness on the part of the authorities to carry out further death sentences in future," said Peter Takirambudde of the group.

Against the international outcry, a consortium of Nigerian lawyers opposed to the death penalty, are representing Safiya Hussaini. An appeal hearing against the sentence on Monday was adjourned until 18 March, allegedly after the worldwide protests received by Nigerian federal president. 

The legal particulars of the case remain unclear and confusing. Mrs. Hussaini, a divorced woman, had given birth to an illegitimate child. She asked the assumed father, Yakubu Abubakar, of the now one-year-old child to take some responsibility. Instead, he went to court and Mrs. Hussaini was put on trial for adultery.

Since that, she has claimed Mr. Abubakar had raped her. The alleged father is at large. However, according to the last Nigerian media reports, Mrs. Hussaini again has changed her statement, withdrawing the claim of rape. She now says the baby was fathered by her former husband. Under Shari'a law, this would not be considered an offence and she could be acquitted.

The legal purists might add the baby was conceived before the new Islamic fundamentalist reading of the local adultery laws was introduced in the state in January last year, the Wall Street Journal Europe today notes.

Mrs. Hussaini's case has become somewhat a symbol for very distinct groups and cultures in Nigeria. Being the first women who could be sentenced to death for adultery in northern Nigeria according to the Shari'a in modern times, Muslim leaders that have fought vigorously to reintroduce the Shari'a do not want outside pressure let them deprive them of this symbolic sentence. 

On the other side stands the liberal Nigerian majority, women's organisations and human rights groups, strongly condemning the possible execution. Protests have been equally strong in Nigeria as abroad, spearheaded by demonstrating women in Southern Nigeria. Even the federal judiciary has protested the Shari'a ruling, the Federal Attorney General claiming the federal government "would not allow" Sokoto State to execute Mrs. Hussaini.

Sources: Based on EU Parliament, press reports and afrol archives

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