Sudan Judges to Rule on Death Row Christian Woman

A three-judge panel in Sudan will examine the appeal of a Christian woman sentenced to hang for apostasy, in a case that has drawn international condemnation, her lawyer said Monday.

"The judiciary appointed three judges last week to examine the appeal filed in the case of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag," lawyer Mohanad Mustafa told Agence France Presse, without specifying when they will deliver a ruling.

Ishag, who was born to a Muslim father, was sentenced to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983, and which outlaws conversions under pain of death.

The 27-year-old was raised an Orthodox Christian, her mother's religion, married a Christian man originally from South Sudan and already had a 20-month-old son before she gave birth on May 27.

She has denied ever committing apostasy.

The lawyer said he had visited her on Monday at the women's prison in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital Khartoum, adding that her son and her newborn baby were with her and "healthy."

The case has embarrassed the Sudanese authorities, who gave contradictory statements last week about her release, raising the ire of Western governments and human rights groups.

The United States, Britain and France have called for her to be released, but the authorities are also under pressure from radical Islamist movements in Sudan that are demanding her execution.

Her husband Daniel Wani, who has U.S. nationality, told AFP last week that he did not believe she would be freed.

Amnesty International said Ishag was raised an Orthodox Christian by her mother because her Muslim father was absent, and called the sentence "abhorrent."