MeriamIbrahimlandsinItaly,onwayto

Meriam Ibrahim lands in Italy, on way to US; Update: Meets with Pope Francis

posted at 8:01 am on July 24, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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There’s plenty of bad news already coming over the transom today and we’ll get to all of it, but one story we’ve followed here has a happy ending. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, the woman sentenced to death in Sudan for her Christian faith, has left Khartoum and landed in Rome, greeted by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the airport. Italy helped the US mediate her release with Sudanese officials in a quiet effort launched a few weeks ago:

Mariam Yehya Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death in Sudan for apostasy but subsequently pardoned, arrived in Rome on Thursday, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Ibrahim “will remain in Italy for a short time and then will travel on to the United States,” the ministry said. …

[Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Lapo] Pistelli said Italy had become involved in the case because, as a Catholic country, it was very moved by Ibrahim’s story and wanted to help.

Italy has good relations with Khartoum and offered to help the U.S. Embassy there to speed up the process of getting U.S. passports for Ibrahim and her family to leave the country, the minister said.

Pistelli said he had traveled to Sudan two weeks ago to start the process but it was not finalized until Wednesday night.

He posted an image to his Facebook page of himself with Ibrahim and the two infants, apparently taken on board the plane shortly before their arrival in Rome. “Mission accomplished,” he wrote.

Pistelli told the press that Pope Francis had been kept informed of the progress of their efforts, and planned on meeting Ibrahim while she was in Italy. The Vatican would not confirm or deny this, but said any private meeting would not get comment in the future either. For the moment, though, the government of Italy will keep Ibrahim and her family under protection — a wise move given the circumstances of her departure.

This raises some interesting questions about how Italy and the US managed to get her out of the country without causing a huge headache for Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir.  His regime has managed to alienate most of Sudan already except for the radical Islamists, which includes Ibrahim’s stepbrother, who wanted her executed as an honor killing. The case drew a ton of attention inside and outside of Sudan, with Bashir’s Islamist credentials potentially at risk if he allowed Ibrahim to flee — which is likely why his secret police seized her at the airport when she tried to leave on her own, and why Ibrahim ended up at the US embassy looking for asylum. Either Bashir will face angry questions from Ibrahim’s family and other hard-line Islamists over her release, or other arrangements were made with the family.

However it happened, kudos to the Italian government for their intercession and success. Prayers have certainly been answered in this case, one bright spot in a bleak season of persecution for Christians. Hopefully, the US will get a chance to welcome Ibrahim and her children to the US soon, but let’s also hope that Ibrahim has a chance to enjoy Italian hospitality while the opportunity presents itself.

Update: Looks like the Vatican acted with alacrity to bring Meriam to meet Pope Francis:

Christian woman spared death for apostasy meets Pope at Vatican after arriving from Sudan http://t.co/zoBAwxP7kW pic.twitter.com/p2vZIxnBy0

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 24, 2014

Wonderful.

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Reuters: US, Sudan negotiating exit for Meriam Ibrahim

posted at 10:01 am on June 28, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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Look like the move to the US embassy in Khartoum has paid off for Meriam Ibrahim, the young Christian mother sentenced to death for her faith in Sudan. Now out of the reach of Sudanese security forces, Reuters reports that Sudan has now begun negotiations to get Ibrahim and her family out of the country:

Sudanese authorities and U.S. officials in Khartoum are negotiating to allow a Sudanese woman, who married an American and was recently spared the death penalty for converting to Christianity, to leave Sudan, sources close to the case said. …

“There are talks going on currently between Sudanese and American officials to try to find a way for Mariam and her family to leave the country,” a source close to the case said asking not to be named as he was not authorized to talk to the media. … “The talks now are aiming to get her out of Sudan on a Sudanese passport,” the source said.

That’s the smart play for Sudan, even if they are getting dragged to the solution kicking and screaming. The US embassy is not going to let Ibrahim get taken by Sudanese security again, and they can keep her there as long as it takes. This is a stalemate that works in favor of the Ibrahims, and the longer it goes the more impotent the regime in Khartoum looks.

And that’s a problem for Omar al-Bashir and his regime in general already. AFP marks the 25th anniversary of Bashir’s “salvation” Islamist junta in Sudan, which has been a regional disaster. The case of Meriam Ibrahim just shines a particularly bright spotlight on a brutal and kleptocratic government whose thirst for war may only be exceeded by the personal greed of the ruling elite:

Bashir, 70, is accused of war crimes in the Darfur region and has maintained power despite internal divisions within his ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

He presides over a country where the number of people needing food and other aid rose 40 percent over the past year and millions have been displaced by the wars and unrest which have touched about half of Sudan’s states.

The country’s image sank even lower in May when a judge sentenced a pregnant Christian woman to hang for “apostasy”, a ruling later overturned but which sparked an outcry from Western governments and human rights groups.

Sudan is bereft of hard currency, internationally isolated and billions of dollars in debt, ranking near bottom in global measures of human development, perceived corruption and press freedom.

Many of Sudan’s 34 million people live in houses made of mud brick while workers put the final touches to a new presidential palace near the banks of the Blue Nile.

Needless to say, Sudan has lots of other problems more pressing than recapturing Ibrahim on whatever trumped-up charges they can find. However, this litany of outrages may explain why the Bashir regime has refused to quietly allow Ibrahim to leave Sudan and end the international scrutiny the case has brought. Their only constituency outside of those that Bashir’s party can bribe is probably the hard-line Islamists who see Ibrahim as a test case to Bashir’s commitment to shari’a law. If Khartoum had shrugged off Ibrahim, they might have found themselves even more isolated — and that may make it difficult for the US to pin Sudan down on a deal to let Ibrahim leave, too. We’ll see.

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IbrahimfleestoUSembassyinKhartoum

Ibrahim flees to US embassy in Khartoum

posted at 8:01 am on June 27, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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The saga of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim took a welcome turn overnight. With death threats coming from her brother and others, the young Christian mother whom Sudan released this week from a death sentence fled to the US embassy in Khartoum, which has provided her refuge until Sudan allows her to leave the country:

A Christian mother formerly on death row in Sudan has taken refuge at the U.S. Embassy after being released from police custody for a second time. …

A video report by the BBC’s Arabic service showed the Ibrahim released for a second time late Thursday. But Ibrahim’s passage to the U.S. may still be blocked as she now faces forgery charges relating to the emergency travel documents she attempted to use to get out of the country. According to Reuters, Ibrahim was released on the condition that she not attempt to leave the country.

Well, keeping that pledge might be a little … complicated, under the circumstances. After all, when the government and your own family have explicitly threatened to kill you for your religion, it’s a little difficult to think of reasons to trust them, no? The forgery charges are trumped up, too; South Sudan certified them as accurate, but Sudan clearly wants to make an example of her. Now that she’s being sheltered at the US embassy, that’s going to be more difficult for them to accomplish.

Meriam Ibrahim spoke to the BBC from outside the embassy:

According to Reuters news agency, quoting her lawyer, Mrs Ibrahim was released on the condition that she remains in Sudan.

“Mariam was released after a guarantor was found, but, of course, she would not be able to leave the country,” Mr Mustafa said.

“I would like to thank the Sudanese people and the Sudanese police,” she told the BBC in an exclusive interview as she left custody. “I would like to thank those who stood beside me.”

Asked about her plans following her release, she said: “I will leave it to God. I didn’t even have a chance to see my family after I got out of prison.”

The issue of the guarantor came up yesterday as well. Someone — it’s not clear yet who — vouched for Ibrahim and her agreement to stay in Sudan in order to win her release. If she flees, the guarantor will be liable for her refusal to obey.

According to Modern Ghana (which refers to her as Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag), the entire family is being sheltered at the US embassy while the situation gets sorted out:

One of Ishag’s lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa, told AFP late Thursday that the family had gone to the US mission after her release from a police station where she had been held since security agents stopped them from travelling to the United States on Tuesday.

The family think the embassy “is a safe place for them,” Musfafa said.

Ishag is charged with forgery and providing false information in relation to a South Sudanese travel document she used to try to leave the country, a day after an appeal court overturned her apostasy conviction and released her from prison. …

Her father abandoned the family when Ishag was five, leaving her to be raised by her mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.

On May 15 a court convicted Ishag under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

Kudos to the State Department for making sure that Meriam and her family have refuge in the United States, which includes the embassy grounds under diplomatic law. That creates a stalemate, of course, as it still would be tricky to get Ibrahim and her family out of the embassy and onto a plane, short of a helicopter — which would still have to transit Sudanese airspace. The best outcome would be for Sudan to give up on its weird and inexplicable persecution of Ibrahim and allow her to leave the country with her husband and children, but thus far the Sudanese government remains obstinate in the matter.

Keep praying, and hopefully the State Department will remain even more obstinate in protecting Meriam and her family.

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IbrahimfleestoUSembassyinKhartoum

Ibrahim flees to US embassy in Khartoum

posted at 8:01 am on June 27, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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The saga of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim took a welcome turn overnight. With death threats coming from her brother and others, the young Christian mother whom Sudan released this week from a death sentence fled to the US embassy in Khartoum, which has provided her refuge until Sudan allows her to leave the country:

A Christian mother formerly on death row in Sudan has taken refuge at the U.S. Embassy after being released from police custody for a second time. …

A video report by the BBC’s Arabic service showed the Ibrahim released for a second time late Thursday. But Ibrahim’s passage to the U.S. may still be blocked as she now faces forgery charges relating to the emergency travel documents she attempted to use to get out of the country. According to Reuters, Ibrahim was released on the condition that she not attempt to leave the country.

Well, keeping that pledge might be a little … complicated, under the circumstances. After all, when the government and your own family have explicitly threatened to kill you for your religion, it’s a little difficult to think of reasons to trust them, no? The forgery charges are trumped up, too; South Sudan certified them as accurate, but Sudan clearly wants to make an example of her. Now that she’s being sheltered at the US embassy, that’s going to be more difficult for them to accomplish.

Meriam Ibrahim spoke to the BBC from outside the embassy:

According to Reuters news agency, quoting her lawyer, Mrs Ibrahim was released on the condition that she remains in Sudan.

“Mariam was released after a guarantor was found, but, of course, she would not be able to leave the country,” Mr Mustafa said.

“I would like to thank the Sudanese people and the Sudanese police,” she told the BBC in an exclusive interview as she left custody. “I would like to thank those who stood beside me.”

Asked about her plans following her release, she said: “I will leave it to God. I didn’t even have a chance to see my family after I got out of prison.”

The issue of the guarantor came up yesterday as well. Someone — it’s not clear yet who — vouched for Ibrahim and her agreement to stay in Sudan in order to win her release. If she flees, the guarantor will be liable for her refusal to obey.

According to Modern Ghana (which refers to her as Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag), the entire family is being sheltered at the US embassy while the situation gets sorted out:

One of Ishag’s lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa, told AFP late Thursday that the family had gone to the US mission after her release from a police station where she had been held since security agents stopped them from travelling to the United States on Tuesday.

The family think the embassy “is a safe place for them,” Musfafa said.

Ishag is charged with forgery and providing false information in relation to a South Sudanese travel document she used to try to leave the country, a day after an appeal court overturned her apostasy conviction and released her from prison. …

Her father abandoned the family when Ishag was five, leaving her to be raised by her mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.

On May 15 a court convicted Ishag under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

Kudos to the State Department for making sure that Meriam and her family have refuge in the United States, which includes the embassy grounds under diplomatic law. That creates a stalemate, of course, as it still would be tricky to get Ibrahim and her family out of the embassy and onto a plane, short of a helicopter — which would still have to transit Sudanese airspace. The best outcome would be for Sudan to give up on its weird and inexplicable persecution of Ibrahim and allow her to leave the country with her husband and children, but thus far the Sudanese government remains obstinate in the matter.

Keep praying, and hopefully the State Department will remain even more obstinate in protecting Meriam and her family.

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Attorneys: Sudan arrests Meriam Yehia Ibrahim, family at airport

posted at 9:21 am on June 24, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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Yesterday’s good news has turned into perhaps even worse news than before. A day after Sudan buckled under international pressure and released Meriam Yehia Ibrahim from prison and a death sentence for apostasy, security forces arrested the entire family at the airport as they attempted to leave the country:

A Sudanese woman whose death sentence for refusing to renounce her Christian faith was revoked has been rearrested, her legal team told CNN Tuesday.

Meriam Ibrahim, 27, and her husband, Daniel Wani, were arrested Tuesday at an airport in Sudan’s capital as they were trying to leave the African country, Ibrahim’s legal team said.

The Daily Mail reports that forty agents took the family of four into custody:

The couple were detained by around 40 security agents with their two children, Maya, one month, and Martin, 21 months.

Meriam’s lawyer, Shareif Ali Shareif, told MailOnline: ‘Meriam Ibrahim and Daniel Wani were arrested at the airport two hours ago [about 1230GMT).

‘They are now in the detention of the National Security forces.

‘The family were trying to leave Sudan for a safe place.

‘The children were with them. The children are with Meriam. They were arrested as well.

‘We don’t have any information about what charges they face. But the National Security force does not have to take them to court. This is not a criminal matter, it a national security matter.’

That cuts both ways, though. In the prior case, the Sudanese government claimed to have no authority to intervene in judicial proceedings (the same would be true here). This is no judicial proceeding, but an act of the government. Diplomacy in this case directly bears on the detention of Ibrahim and her family.

Furthermore, the detention now involves an American citizen, Daniel Wani, as well as the citizenship of his two children. The State Department has to take action with the Sudanese government in this situation, especially given the affront of arresting Wani in the first place after all of the discussion between the US and Sudan over his wife.

The global outcry over Ibrahim’s death sentence for her faith helped to set her free. Let’s hope a similar outcry over this arrest as she prepared to leave Sudan to practice her faith freely does the same, and let’s also hope that State is burning up the phone lines demanding an end to Sudan’s persecution of Ibrahim, her family, and all Christians in the country.

Update: Reuters confirms the arrest with a Sudanese official, although they still won’t say why:

Sudanese authorities re-arrested a Sudanese woman on Tuesday hours after she was freed from death row, and detained her and her family as they tried to board a plane in Khartoum, a security source and her lawyer said. …

The security official said he did know the reason for the re-arrest. One of Ibrahim’s lawyers said she was being held at a security building outside the airport with her husband and two children.

The State Department needs to get the family on a diplomatic transport as soon as possible.

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SudanreleasesChristianwomansentencedtodeathfor

Sudan releases Christian woman sentenced to death for her faith; Update: State Dept to meet with lawyers tomorrow

posted at 12:01 pm on June 23, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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The global outcry over the death sentence for a Christian mother seems to have worked. Earlier today, a court in Sudan overturned Meriam Yahia Ibrahim’s conviction and sentence and ordered her release. Ibrahim was due to be flogged with 100 lashes and hanged for her adherence to Christianity, but the sentence — and especially her then-pregnant status — made it a worldwide outrage:

A Sudanese woman on death row for apostasy had her sentence canceled and was ordered released by a Khartoum court on Monday, the country’s official news agency reported.

SUNA said the Court of Cassation canceled the death sentence against 27-year-old Meriam Ibrahim after defense lawyers presented their case. The court ordered her release.

The Daily Mail has more:

Daniel Wani’s brother Gabriel, who lives in Manchester, New Hampshire, said: ‘I need to call my brother to find out what is happening.

‘If it’s true it is great news.

‘Knowing him he will want to want to bring her back to America as soon as he can. I hope he can do that’.

Safwan Abobaker, an activist who works with religious campaign group Hardwired, which is based in the US, said that the pressure to release Meriam had paid off.

He said: ‘The Sudanese government was embarrassed by all the attention so they freed her.

‘It’s better for her to come to America now as her half brother said that he would kill her if the court did not carry out the sentence.

‘The Sudanese government needs to protect Meriam and the US embassy in Sudan needs to find a way of bringing her to America quickly.

‘The US government needs to grant Meriam asylum or find a way to let her come to America right away. She needs to come to America’.

The archdiocese of Khartoum had hailed Ibrahim’s fidelity to the faith as it pressed the Sudanese court to reverse itself:

“There are many people trying to persuade Meriam to renounce Christianity in order to be freed, but she is refusing. Some people are pleading with her husband to convince her to abandon Christian faith in order to save her life, but to no avail,” the archdiocese said.

“The Catholic Church — Archdiocese of Khartoum — expresses deep regret over the way the case is being handled in the court,” with disregard of “Meriam’s moral and religious beliefs,” it said.

“We are pleading with the judiciary and other concerned authorities to review the case … and to bring it to a reasonable end,” it said.

This may be a “reasonable end,” but only in contrast to the unreasonable beginning and middle. Death sentences, prison terms, and floggings for religious conversion are an affront to human rights, and a reflection of the oppression Christians face in much of the world. The need for Ibrahim to flee Sudan to save her life even after the rescinding of the conviction and sentence provides even further demonstration of that persecution. Let’s continue to pray for Ibrahim’s safe deliverance to the US, and keep our focus on the oppression of millions of other Christians around the world.

Update: In a measure of just how dangerous it will be for Ibrahim to remain in Sudan, her attorneys have hidden the family in a safehouse, according to The Guardian:

The Sudanese state news agency Suna said: “The appeal court ordered the release of [Ibrahim] and the cancellation of the [earlier] court ruling.”

However, there was no sign of Ibrahim, her husband Daniel Wani or their two children at the couple’s home in Khartoum.

Mohaned Mostafa, a member of Ibrahim’s legal team, said she had been moved to a safehouse “for her protection and security”. He told Reuters: “Her family had been threatened before and we are worried that someone might try to harm her.”

The US should be acting with alacrity to offer her asylum.

Update: There is good news on the asylum front, too, at least preliminarily:

Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel Wani, holds dual U.S.-Sudanese citizenship, and Ibrahim’s supporters argued that their children, including a daughter named Maya born in prison in May and a 20-month-old boy named Martin who was imprisoned with her, are U.S. citizens.

Sources close to the situation tell FoxNews.com that Ibrahim was whisked away to a confidential location and that her lawyers will be meeting with representatives from the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday.

“This is a huge first step,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee. “But the second step is that Ms. Ibrahim and her husband and their children be on a plane heading to the United States.”

Make it so.

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Video: Outrage grows over Sudan death sentence for pregnant Christian

posted at 12:01 pm on May 26, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

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There is a US connection to the case of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who drew a death sentence plus flogging of 100 lashes for the crime in Sudan for being a convert to Christianity. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has begun pushing to get a grant of political asylum from the State Department while her family prays that Sudanese officials will deport her rather than execute her in their adherence to shari’a law:

The Boston Globe has more on the local connection to Meriam’s plight:

The heart-wrenching story of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a 27-year-old pregnant Sudanese woman, is rippling through New Hampshire, the adopted home of her husband, galvanizing activists, neighbors, and politicians to call for her rescue.

Ishag, 27, ran afoul of Islamic shariah law by marrying Daniel Wani, now a US citizen who lives in Manchester, N.H., with his brother, Gabriel. The family’s plight has captivated the small but tight-knit community of Sudanese immigrants here, many of whom fled religious persecution and strife in Sudan.

“The regime in Sudan, they can do whatever they want to do,” said Pastor Monyroor Teng, who heads the Sudanese Evangelical Covenant Church in Manchester. “We’re all still wondering, how is she going to survive this?”

Ishag, who is more than eight months pregnant, was shackled at the ankles when her husband saw her in prison, Wani has told media outlets. Other media outlets have described Ishag as a physician.

“Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag’s sentencing is an abhorrent violation of universal human rights and fundamental freedoms,” US Senator Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement. “No one should be treated as a criminal for exercising the right of religious choice.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the State Department said the United States is “fully engaged diplomatically in the case,” and had communicated “strong concern at high levels of the Sudanese government.” The statement reiterated an earlier US call for Sudan to respect international and Sudanese laws protecting freedom of religion.

Sudan has come under increasing pressure at home and abroad to rescind the death sentence and end criminal penalties for “apostasy” from Islam. So far, the Sudanese government isn’t budging, but they are finding themselves with few allies, the Guardian reports (via Lisa Graas):

Sudan is facing mounting condemnation for sentencing a pregnant woman to be whipped and then hanged for adultery and apostasy, and for keeping her shackled in prison with her toddler son a month before she is due to give birth.

Governments, the UN and human rights groups have called on the Sudanese government to immediately release Meriam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, and overturn both her death sentence and sentence of 100 lashes. More than 100,000 people have backed a call by Amnesty International to release Ibrahim. …

Her lawyers have lodged an appeal against the sentence, which may be heard in Khartoum this week. Ibrahim is being held in harsh conditions and is constantly shackled, according to Amnesty. Her 20-month-old son, Martin, has been kept in prison with her since February.

Ibrahim has been told that her execution will be deferred for two years to allow her to deliver and then wean her baby.

Her husband, Daniel Wani, who left Sudan for the US in 1998, has travelled to Khartoum to try to secure the release of his wife and son. He said Ibrahim was being denied medical treatment and he had not been allowed to visit her or Martin, according to media reports.

The Sudanese authorities have reportedly refused to release the child to his father’s care because of his Christian faith.

The two-year extension gives the diplomacy route more time to have an impact, but Meriam still faces threats to her health and that of her children while incarcerated in these conditions. Pray for Meriam, and contact your elected officials to make sure that State is putting maximum pressure on Sudan for her release.

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