The BBC reported Saturday that the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy, Meriam Ibrahim, will be released in the coming days. The report was based on a statement made by a high-ranking Sudanese foreign minister who reportedly said Ibrahim would be released from prison in a few days’ time. I caught up with the Ibrahim’s brother-in-law Gabriel Wani of Manchester.
Sitting in his living room, Gabriel Wani anxiously phones his brother Daniel, Ibrahim’s husband, to see if she will be released.
Daniel tells him it’s just a rumor.
Daniel, who has been in Sudan since last year, was able to visit his wife this week and see his newborn daughter who was delivered in the prison hospital on Tuesday.
Since the BBC reported on the Sudanese official’s statement other news agencies have made similar reports. But Ibrahim’s husband cannot confirm it.
Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced to one hundred lashes for adultery, for marrying a Christian, and to death by hanging for converting to Christianity. Ibrahim says she’s always been a Christian and is estranged from her Muslim father.
The case has invited international condemnation and the pressure on Khartoum to release Ibrahim is mounting.
