Nigerian woman sentenced to stoning death says she will accept sentence if appeal fails

Aug 5, 2002 

By OLOCHE SAMUEL,  FUNTUA, Nigeria - A woman sentenced by an Islamic court to death by stoning for adultery said Monday she would accept the outcome of her ongoing appeal as "the will of Allah," no matter what the result.

Amina Lawal, 30, was convicted and sentenced by an Islamic Shariah court in March after giving birth to a baby girl more than nine months after divorcing.

 Prosecutors called on the Islamic high court in Funtua, Katsina state to uphold the death sentence because Lawal admitted having sex outside marriage, a crime punishable by death in some instances under Islamic Shariah law.

 However, her lawyers have argued she could not have knowingly made a confession because she did not understand the Arabic term for adultery, "zena."

 During the two-hour court session, Lawal calmly played with her baby girl, the product of the forbidden liaison. Afterwards, she told reporters she would accept the Islamic judge's final ruling.

 "Whatever the court decides, I will accept it in good faith, believing it is the will of Allah," she said.

 Ismail Ibrahim Yari, a prosecution lawyer, argued the death sentence should be upheld in part because "when a Shariah court passes judgement, people shouldn't contest it." He further disputed the defense view that Lawal should be forgiven any indiscretions because she is uneducated and from a rural village.

 "There are no separate laws for people in different locations," Yari said. "All we are asking for is for this court to uphold the tenets of the Quran and Islam."

 Judges postponed Monday's case until Aug. 19, when a final verdict is expected.

 However, the appeals court has already ruled in June that Lawal cannot not be executed until 2004, after she has finished breast-feeding her baby, if at all. Many expect the case to be overturned after Nigeria's municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections are held over the coming year, making intervention on her behalf less politically damaging.

 Lawal is now free on bail. The baby is believed to be eight months old. The exact time period between her divorce and the birth has not been disclosed.

 During the March 19 trial, the man Lawal identified as her sexual partner, Yahaya Mohammed, denied the accusation and was acquitted for lack of evidence. Lawal's baby is seen as evidence for her part.

 The U.S.-based National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Amnesty International are protesting the case.

 Lawal is the second Nigerian woman condemned to death for having sex out of wedlock since Islamic law, or Shariah, started going into effect in a dozen northern states.

 The first, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March by a Muslim appeals court in the city of Sokoto.

 President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has declared Shariah punishments such as beheadings, stonings and amputations unconstitutional. Some predominantly Muslim northern states, which began instituting Shariah shortly after civilian rule replaced military dictatorship in 1999, have accused him of meddling.