SUDAN: A Christian Woman Sentenced to Death for Alleged Apostasy; The Catholic Church Speaks
for alleged ”Apostasy”
statement is to provide official information about the above mentioned woman whose
stunning death sentence, on 1fh May 2014, has made shockwaves all over the country
and the world. In the midst of international attention, too many media houses have
reported about the case; giving conflicting statements some of which may not be
accurate. This statement complements the position paper that was issued by the
Sudan Council of Churches on the 21 May, 2014.
Some particulars about the couple:
Mariam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag; born in Ghedaref, on 3rd November 1987. Father’s
name: Yahya Ibrahim Ishag – a Sudanese Muslim from Darfur (Western Sudan). Mother’s
name: Zahra Tesfai – an Ethiopian from Orthodox Church; who died in 201l. Marital
Status: Married to Mr. Daniel Bicensio Wani, an American citizen (from Manchester
– New Hampshire) of South Sudan Origin. He migrated to the United States in
1998. Daniel B. Wani is a Catholic born in Khartoum on 9th April 1970. He was Baptized
and confirmed in Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Catholic Church. He married Miss.
Mariam in the Catholic Church (Holy Family Chapel which is under St. Matthew Cathedral)
on 19th December 2011. They have a 20-month-old son called Martin and a daughter
born in prison on 28th May 2014.
Background of the problem:
her only brother Hassan Yahya Ibrahim Ishag were probably born out of wedlock.
Mariam’s father Yahya Ibrahim Ishag abandoned Mrs. Zahra while Mariam was only
5 years old. Mariam never saw her father ever since. She grew up under the care
of her Orthodox Christian mother. She was admitted into the Catholic Church
shortly before she could marry Mr. Daniel Wani in 2011. Mrs, Mariam, though her
father was a Muslim, was brought up in the faith of her mother Zahra as an
Orthodox Christian. Never in her life did she embrace the Islamic Religion nor
renounce it. She has never been a Muslim in her life.
It is worth
mentioning that Daniel and Mariam own some business enterprises in Ghedaref: a
barbar shop, a mini-supermarket and an agricultural project. Mariam and Daniel
were both arrested on September 15th 2013. The whole problem was raised by a
group of men who claim to be Mariam’s relatives (while in fact she has never
seen them before). The men claim that according to Sharia law (cf. art. 146 of Sudan
Criminal Ace 1991), a Christian cannot marry a Muslim woman validly. As a
consequence, the couple was first accused of adultery; the charge which was
later dropped by Haj Yousif court.
An appeal
overturned the ruling and ordered the court to review the case. It was during
the second trial that another more serious charge was brought against Mariam;
that of “apostasy” because she has allegedly, renounced the Islamic
religion. (cf. art. 126 of Sudan Criminal Act 1991). Accordingly, Mrs. Mariam whose
father was a Muslim should never have become a Christian. The case dragged on
for six months before it finally got an international attention on 11th May
2014 when the court sentenced Mariam to death by hanging. She was given three
days by the court to re-consider her decision and to return to the Islamic
faith but Mrs. Mariam told the court that since her childhood she has only
known the Christian religion.
Attempts made to help the couple
much attention given to the case in the beginning since it was to do with adultery.
Some of the institutions in Khartoum which Daniel approached for help gave little
attention to the case. Mr. Daniel then hired a lawyer to represent them but she
was later forced to abandon the case amidst mounting pressure from the
accusers. A group of lawyers belonging to “Justice Center for
Advocacy”, represented by its director, Mohamed Mustafa EI Nour, have now
volunteered to go on with the process.
Present status of the case
is still in Omdurman prison, practically on death row, breast feeding her child
in chains. Her case is currently in the court of appeal. No one knows when the appeal
court will decide on it. According to the concerned authorities, Mrs. Mariam
can only be released on condition that she renounces Christianity and gets
divorced from the husband. The only way to save their marriage, supposing that
Mariam abandons her Christian faith, is for the husband “Daniel” to
embrace Islam and be remarried according to Islamic religion.
There are
many people trying to persuade Mariam to renounce Christianity in order to be
freed but she is refusing. Some people are pleading with her husband to
convince her to abandon Christian faith in order to save her life but to no
avail. Given the freedom of religion guaranteed by Sudan’s current interim constitution
(2005 art, 38), which reads: “Every person shall have the right to the
freedom of religious creed and worship/ and to declare his/her religion or creed
and manifest the same/ by way of worship/ education practice or performance of
rites or ceremonies/ subject to requirements of law and public order; no person
shall be coerced to adopt such faith that he/she does not believe in nor to practice
rites or services to which he/she does not voluntarily consent.
The Catholic Church
of Khartoum expresses deep regret (disappointment) over the way the case is being
handled in the court in disregard to Mariam’s moral and religious belief. The
fact of the matter is that Mariam did not abandon the Islamic faith but rather
she, in the first place, did not follow the Islamic religion since her
childhood.
Therefore,
in light of the facts that we have provided above, and to honour Mariam’s steadfast
position to maintain her Christian faith, we are pleading with the Judiciary
and other concerned authorities to review the case against Mrs. Mariam and to
bring it to a reasonable end.
Khartoum
