Department of State Must Demand Release of Sudanese Christian Woman and Her American Citizen Child

The Center for Security Policy strongly urges the Department of State to demand that the government of Sudan immediately release Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, a 27-year old Sudanese Christian woman married to a naturalized American citizen and their 20-month old American citizen child from prison, where she and the toddler are being held after she was sentenced to flogging and death on charges of “apostasy” and “adultery” under Sudan’s Islamic legal code.

Ibrahim is the daughter of a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Christian mother who was raised by her mother as an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian from the age of 6, when her father abandoned the family. She is a graduate of the School of Medicine in Khartoum and married her naturalized American citizen husband, Daniel Wani, in 2011. Their toddler child, Martin, is an American citizen, but is being held in jail together with his mother, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child. Ibrahim’s husband is accused of proselytizing Ibrahim to abandon Islam and she herself was arrested on 17 February 2014 for alleged “apostasy” and “adultery,” as under shariah her marriage to a Christian is considered null and void.

Despite severe psychological pressure to recant her Christian faith, Ibrahim remains steadfast in refusing to do so, even under threat of a death sentence (the prescribed penalty for ‘forsaking Islam’ under Sudan’s Penal Code, which conforms to Islamic Law). Today, 15 May 2014, Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa pronounced her sentence: to be lashed 100 times for adultery and then hanged.

The Center for Security Policy finds such penalties for the so-called hadd offenses under shariah abhorrent and in violation of all civilized concepts of human rights. That American citizens are being subjected to such treatment requires an urgent response from Secretary of State John Kerry. We therefore urge Secretary Kerry to demand the immediate release of Meriam and Martin and then expedite them and Ibrahim’s naturalized American citizen husband Daniel to safety and the protection of their religious freedom, in the U.S.

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY

The Center for Security Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security and then ensures that such issues are the subject of both focused, principled examination and effective action by recognized policy experts, appropriate officials, opinion leaders, and the general public. For more information visit www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org.