08/24/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10086

NIGERIAN STONING SENTENCE

On August 19^th, an Islamic high court in Nigeria’s Katsina [kaht-SEE-nah] state rejected an appeal from Amina Lawal [ah-MEE-nah lah-WAHL], a woman sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery. Ms. Lawal was sentenced in March, after giving birth to a daughter more than nine months after being divorced. The man she claimed was her child’s father was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Sex outside of marriage and adultery are considered sins by many religions. In some places and in some religions, sins may also be treated as crimes. In Nigeria today, twelve of the thirty-six states have elected to apply Islamic law, or Sharia, to Muslim citizens. In other states or for non-Muslim citizens, these laws do not apply. Some Nigerians, including Nigeria’s Attorney General, believe that the application of strict Sharia violates Nigeria’s Constitution and international commitments. But there has not been a final resolution to this issue.

Amina Lawal was tried by an Islamic court because she lives in Katsina, one of the states that has chosen to apply Sharia. Her lawyers say they will appeal her case to a higher Islamic court and, if necessary, to Nigeria’s Supreme Court. This could force a showdown between Nigerian civil and religious authorities, and a decision by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of such Sharia punishments as stoning to death, beheading, and amputation.

Ms. Lawal has been granted a stay of sentence by a Sharia court until January 2004 in order to wean her baby daughter. A hopeful sign is that the case of another woman convicted earlier of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning was overturned upon appeal. No sentence of death by stoning has yet been carried out in Nigeria.

Much of the world agrees that stoning a person to death is a cruel and barbarous practice -- a violation of basic human rights. That is why people in Nigeria, the United States, Britain, France, Sweden, and other countries have spoken out against the sentence for Ms. Lawal. Innocent Chukwuma [choo-KOO-mah] of the Lagos-based Center for Law Enforcement Education, said, "If one can be sentenced to death for fornication, then it makes nonsense of our democracy."

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker has said that the U.S. government wants to see Ms. Lawal afforded all the protections of due process, fairness, and justice. The U.S. has urged Nigeria to ensure that consideration of the case and any punishment will be consistent with international human rights law and standards.