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22/05/2014
Call For Leaders To Intervene After Pregnant Doctor Gets Sentenced To Death
The British Medical Association (BMA) is calling for world leaders to intervene over a heavily pregnant doctor who has been sentenced to death in Sudan.
The association has written to the Sudanese president, the British prime minister and his foreign secretary calling for the doctor’s immediate release.
In his letters, BMA council chair Mark Porter criticises the "barbaric" sentence and calls the doctor a prisoner of conscience.
He maintains that, by every human standard, she "is innocent of any recognisable offence".
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim was sentenced to hanging for the abandonment of religious faith when she refused to recant her belief in Christianity.
She is the daughter of a Christian woman and Muslim man. She was raised Christian after her father left. However, under Sudanese law, children born to Muslim fathers are considered Muslim.
She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes after marrying a Christian man.
The 27-year-old, who is eight month'’ pregnant, awaits her sentence in prison with her 20-month-old toddler son, with reports suggesting she is shackled in her cell.
The Sudanese criminal code states the doctor must give birth and nurse the child for two years before the execution proceeds.
In his letters, Dr Porter asks UK leaders to use all avenues at their disposal to pressurise the Sudanese authorities to overturn the sentence.
He writes: "It goes without saying that the Sudanese judgment is in violation of international human rights and moral norms. According to progressive Muslim scholars it is also an inhumane and archaic reading of Islamic law."
(CVS)
The association has written to the Sudanese president, the British prime minister and his foreign secretary calling for the doctor’s immediate release.
In his letters, BMA council chair Mark Porter criticises the "barbaric" sentence and calls the doctor a prisoner of conscience.
He maintains that, by every human standard, she "is innocent of any recognisable offence".
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim was sentenced to hanging for the abandonment of religious faith when she refused to recant her belief in Christianity.
She is the daughter of a Christian woman and Muslim man. She was raised Christian after her father left. However, under Sudanese law, children born to Muslim fathers are considered Muslim.
She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes after marrying a Christian man.
The 27-year-old, who is eight month'’ pregnant, awaits her sentence in prison with her 20-month-old toddler son, with reports suggesting she is shackled in her cell.
The Sudanese criminal code states the doctor must give birth and nurse the child for two years before the execution proceeds.
In his letters, Dr Porter asks UK leaders to use all avenues at their disposal to pressurise the Sudanese authorities to overturn the sentence.
He writes: "It goes without saying that the Sudanese judgment is in violation of international human rights and moral norms. According to progressive Muslim scholars it is also an inhumane and archaic reading of Islamic law."
(CVS)
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