Nigerian government silent on stoning

The Nigerian government today remained silent over an Islamic court ruling that a single mother should be stoned to death, despite growing international pressure to overturn the sentence.

A spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo declined to comment on the verdict - or the resulting protests from governments and human rights groups.

"We are watching the situation," said Tunji Oseni.

An Islamic court in the northern town of Funtua rejected an appeal on Monday by Amina Lawal against the death sentence for having sex outside marriage.

The woman’s lawyers said they will appeal to a higher court.

Human rights groups said the sentence violated international conventions and called on Obasanjo’s government to stop it.

"The death penalty is never an appropriate punishment for a crime, and, in this instance, the very nature of the crime is in doubt," said LaShawn Jefferson of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

London-based Amnesty International said stoning people to death was "the ultimate form of torture" and that the "sentence should not be carried out".

EU spokesman Michael Curtis said the European Union would launch "appeals and de-marches" against the Nigerian government to try to overturn Lawal’s sentence.

"We are concerned about this case. Our opposition to the death penalty is clear," he said.

Lawal, 30, was first sentenced in March after giving birth to a daughter more than nine months after divorcing.

Her conviction was upheld on the basis that she admitted having sex outside marriage. The man she identified as her baby’s father denied the charges and was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The introduction of Islamic law, or Shariah, in a dozen northern states since 1999 has sparked clashes between Nigeria’s Christians and Muslims.

Lawal is the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death for having sex out of wedlock under Islamic law. The first woman, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March on her first appeal.