Accessibility links

Labari da Dumi-Duminsa

Sudan Frees Woman Sentenced to Death for Refusing to Give Up Christian Faith


FILE - Meriam Ibrahim, sitting next to Martin, her 18-month-old son, holds the newborn daughter she gave birth to in jail in May at a prison in Khartoum, Sudan.
FILE - Meriam Ibrahim, sitting next to Martin, her 18-month-old son, holds the newborn daughter she gave birth to in jail in May at a prison in Khartoum, Sudan.

A Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death for apostasy has been freed but ordered not to leave the country.

Meriam Yahya Ibrahim left the police station in Khartoum Thursday and immediately sought refuge in the U.S. embassy with her husband --a South Sudanese-born U.S. citizen -- and their two children.

Police arrested her Tuesday as she tried to board a plane for the United States, accusing her of traveling with a forged passport.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf says Ibrahim has all the documents she needs to enter the U.S. and it is up to the Sudanese government to let her go.

Ibrahim's case drew worldwide condemnation when she was sentenced to death for refusing to give up her Christianity.

A Sudanese appeals court threw out the sentence earlier this week.

Ibrahim's mother was a Christian and her father a Muslim.

Under Sudanese law, she is a Muslim even though she was brought up as a Christian after her father abandoned the family.

XS
SM
MD
LG