LAGOS, 29 AGO - Sono stati condannati a morte per lapidazione anche per due amanti in Nigeria, dichiarati colpevoli di adulterio da un tribunale islamico dello stato del Niger, nel nord del paese. Lo hanno riferito le autorita' locali.

Nigerian court sentences lovers to death

AUGUST 29, 2002 

DUTSE: An Islamic court in northern Nigeria has sentenced two lovers to death for have sex outside marriage, while officials in another state said Thursday a convicted rapist could be stoned to death within days.

 A spokesman for Niger State said that Ahmadu Ibrahim, 32, and his girlfriend Fatima Usman, a 30-year-old mother of two, had been convicted by a Sharia court of having sex outside marriage.

 The Niger State spokesman Mahmud Ibrahim said the two lovers had on August 5 been jailed for five years for adultery, after refusing to pay a 15,000 naira ($120) fine.

 "The judge was lenient on them because they pleaded for mercy on the ground that they had never done it before," Ibrahim said.

 But Usman's father, who was opposed to the relationship and had denounced the two lovers in May, objected to the sentence, arguing it was too harsh on his daughter.

 "When the case was reviewed by the judge, they were sentenced to death as the Sharia prescribes," Ibrahim said.

 "Although the convicts were not in court during the sentence they were given 30 days to appeal if they are not satisfied with the it," he added.

 Meanwhile, further north in Jigawa state, state officials said that 54-year-old Sarimu Barada would be executed once the state governor returned from a trip outside the state.

 Both cases have the potential to embarrass Nigeria's federal government, which has declared that the Sharia criminal code used in 12 mainly Muslim northern states is unconstitutional.

 When an Islamic court in Katsina state decided earlier this month to confirm a stoning sentence against single mother Amina Lawal, 30, it triggered a worldwide outcry.

 President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he will weep if Lawal is killed, but his government says it is unable to overrule the courts, despite the damage done to Nigeria's international standing.

 In Jigawa, Barada refused to appeal a death sentence handed down by a Sharia court on May 8 after he confessed to raping a nine-year-old girl, said Ibrahim Garba, permanent secretary of the state religious affairs ministry.

 Barada was given a month to appeal but has not done so.

 Garba said the state justice ministry had processed the sentence and the file is on the desk of Governor Ibrahim Turaki who is expected to order the execution on his return to the state.

 "The sentence will be carried out very soon," he said. "The delay in carrying out the sentence can be explained by the slow judicial process."

 Earlier this week Turaki's spokesman said the governor had assured Islamic leaders that the sentence would be carried out.

 The spectacle of a convict being stoned to death in the street would outrage many in the international community, including the many countries which called for clemency in the Lawal case.

 The international campaign group Human Rights Watch condemned the sentence against Barada.

 "The reason for his decision not to appeal has not been confirmed, but on the basis of past experience, we are concerned the trial may not have been fair," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the group's Africa division.

 The cases could also stoke religious tensions in this west African country where roughly half of the population is Christian and where rioting between Muslims and Christians has claimed thousands of lives over the last three years.

 But in the federal capital Abuja, junior justice minister Musa Elayo, said there was nothing the government could do.

 "If it's true that the man did not appeal against the judgement and the governor confirmed the death sentence, then there's nothing the federal government can do since it's a state offence," he said.

 "The constitution gives only the governor the power of mercy in a state offence," he explained.

 Elayo said that the federal government remained opposed to the incorporation of Sharia into states' criminal law, but had no option but to wait until a defendant appealed his or her case to a federal court.

 "The position of the government on Sharia is to await the court of appeal or the supreme court interpretation of the law," he said.

 Jigawa, Niger and Katsina are among 12 mainly Muslim states that reintroduced Sharia law after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.