Nigerian Court Rules Woman Won't Be Stoned to Death Mother of Five Accused of Adultery

By GLENN McKENZIE .c The Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria (March 25) - A Muslim appeals court on Monday acquitted the first Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for sex outside wedlock, ruling there was insufficient evidence to justify the harsh punishment under Islamic law.

Tambari Usman, one of four judges sitting on the panel in the northern city of Sokoto, said an alleged confession by Safiya Hussaini was inadmissible because prosecutors and police had not adequately informed the 35-year-old mother of five of the nature of the crime of adultery and its seriousness under Shariah, or Islamic law.

An Islamic court convicted Hussaini in October of conceiving a child with a married neighbor. The court ordered that she be stoned while the lower part of her body was buried in sand.

Hussaini, a Hausa-speaker, did not understand Monday's court verdict as it was read in Arabic but smiled broadly and said softly, ``Thank you, thank you,'' after the ruling was translated to her by well-wishers sitting nearby.

Her lawyers hurried her from the courtroom.

The case stirred outrage well beyond this troubled West African nation, where opposition to the imposition of Islamic law, or Shariah, in the north has resulted in Muslim-Christian violence that has killed thousands since early 2000. International rights organizations, women's groups, European Union parliamentarians and U.S. lawmakers all condemned the ruling.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's government and rights groups provided lawyers for Hussaini's defense. Last week, the Nigerian government for the first time, declared Shariah punishments such as executions and amputations ``unconstitutional.'' However, several northern state governments, including Sokoto, have said they will continue to uphold Shariah laws.

Hussaini and her lawyers say she was impregnated by her former husband before their divorce ``some years ago.'' Although she gave birth to a baby girl, Adama, more than a year after the marriage ended, the defense argued that up to seven years can pass between conception and birth under Islamic law, despite the biological improbability.

Prosecution lawyer Mohammed Bara'u Kamarawa argued last week Adama's birth 13 months ago was enough to prove adultery.

Originally, Hussaini claimed she was raped by her neighbor, Yakubu Abubakar.

She withdrew the rape accusation after Abubakar fled, apparently fearing he would be arrested.

The 11 lawyers defending Hussaini applauded Monday's ruling, predicting it would help deter prosecutors from ``frivolously'' making similar accusations in future.

``This is a landmark judgment that will serve as a guide to all other cases to adultery. People will think twice about overzealous reporting of these kind of charges,'' Hurera Akiluattah, one of the defense attorneys, said by telephone.

Although Hussaini was the first to be ordered stoned to death since northern states began implementing Shariah law in 2000, at least one other woman has been similarly convicted and sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

A Shariah court in Bakori, Katsina state, on Friday ordered Amina Lawal Kurami, to be executed for giving birth to a girl more than nine months after divorcing her former husband. The man, who Kurami said was her sexual partner, Yahaya Mohammed, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Kurami was given 30 days to appeal the ruling.

AP-NY-03-25-02 1021EST

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