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.... ....   Home  |  Cover Stories  |  National Newsreel  |  Politics  |  Business  |  Sports  |  World  | Contact Towards a better life for the people Search The Archives   Cover Stories National News South West Niger Delta South East North Politics Business Sports World Viewpoints Features   ..... NATIONAL NEWS Sharia court nullifies death penalty on woman Saturday, December 11, 2004 A Sharia court in Bauchi has overturned a death sentence imposed on a 29-year-old woman who gave birth after a divorce and was convicted of adultery, her lawyer said yesterday. Daso Adamu was acquitted by the Upper Sharia court in Ningi on Thursday after the judge, Yusuf Suleiman, ruled that her being pregnant was not enough evidence to warrant a sentence that she be stoned to death. “The court faulted the lower court’s judgement, saying that since Daso became pregnant within two years of her divorce it was wrong to assume the pregnancy was illegal because there is the possibility that the pregnancy was from her former husband”, defence counsel Abdulkadir Suleiman said. Under the interpretation of Sharia in force in much of Northern Nigeria, it is regarded as possible that a “dormant pregnancy” might last up to five years from the end of a marriage. Once a woman is married any sexual relation she conducts with a man other than her husband is considered adultery, even if she has divorced. “The court further argued that her trial in court was improper because she didn’t present herself to court but was dragged and tried against her wish,” Suleiman added, speaking from Bauchi in a telephone interview. Adamu, who has been married five times and is a mother of three, was sentenced to death by stoning last July by a lower Sharia court after she gave birth to her daughter, Dije. She challenged the sentence with the help of a women’s rights group, Baobab, which paid for the legal services of the defence counsel. Adamu’s acquittal came one month after 18-year-old Hajara Ibrahim also escaped a death sentence when the Dass Upper Sharia court, also in Bauchi, acquitted her of having had sex outside marriage.   Home  |  Cover Stories  |  National Newsreel  |  Politics  |  Business  |  Sports  |  World  | Contact © 1998- 2004. Vanguard Media Ltd.

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