Pardon for the long news paste but I did not just want to give the link - it sometimes disappear.
**Adultress appeals against death by stoning
Kano, Nigeria - The government of a Nigerian state where an Islamic court last month sentenced a woman to death by stoning said on Wednesday an appeals court will eventually determine her fate.
Counsel to Safiya Tungar-Tudu, 33, who is hiding after her conviction on October 9 for adultery by an Islamic court in Gwadabawa, Sokoto State, has appealed against the sentence.
The hearing in the appeal will come up on November 27 at the Sokoto State Sharia Court of Appeal amid local and international criticisms against the death sentence.
In a local radio report monitored here on Wednesday, Kano State Justice Commissioner Aliyu Abubakar Saina said the government will allow the appeals court to determine Tungar-Tudu’s fate.
‘Nobody can dismiss the sentence except the appeals court’
“Nobody can dismiss the sentence except the appeals court,” he said.
He said the public outcry and appeals against the death sentence were misplaced.
“We have to allow due process of law to take its course since the application of Sharia law is constitutional,” he added.
Last week, the woman’s lawyer, Imam Ibrahim, told reporters he filed the appeal for a stay-of-execution and would be seeking the woman’s freedom.
“My legal team is only interested in the freedom of the woman and will do everything possible within the Islamic legal system to ensure this at the appeal,” he said.
‘My legal team is only interested in the freedom of the woman’
The sentence passed by the court has been condemned by human rights groups in Nigeria and abroad.
If Tungar-Tudu’s appeal fails, the sentence is that she should be buried in a hole up to her neck and stoned on the head until she dies. The man with whom she was charged with committing adultery was freed by the same court for lack of evidence.
Nigerian human rights groups have called the sentence a “war on the constitution” of the secular federal nation as well as a violation of her rights.
The justice commissioner’s announcement appeared to be a reversal of the previous position taken by Kano State authorities.
Last month, Information Commissioner Attahiru Mai-Akwai Gwadabawa said the lower court’s decision was “irreversible” because it was based on the Islamic legal code.
“Changing the rules in favour of the accused person as it is being advocated by some human rights organisations will contradict the principles of Sharia (strict Islamic law),” he added. - Sapa-AFP**
Previously on this forum someone pointed out that a pregnant woman can’t be stoned due to some Islamic law. Is this true? How can the man get off free and the woman not?