Lawal stoning appeal is delayed

An Islamic court in northern Nigeria today postponed the appeal of a woman condemned to death by stoning for sex outside marriage, because enough judges did not turn up.

Amina Lawal’s case was being adjourned until August 27 as two of the panel’s four judges would be unavailable until then.

The 31-year-old single mother was convicted in March 2002 after she had a child – now two years old – outside wedlock.

She was sentenced to be buried up to her neck in sand and stoned to death.

Officials of Katsina State – one of a dozen in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north to have adopted strict Islamic law, or Shariah – have insisted the case go through the judicial appeals process despite requests by Nigeria’s federal government that Lawal be freed.

Lawal, who appeared in court wearing a traditional pink veil and cuddling her toddler, looked cheerful and in high spirits but said she was keen to see the end of the case.

“I’m anxious. Only God knows when this will be over,” she said.

Some observers believed court officials were deliberately delaying the case in an attempt to deflect attention from international rights and women’s groups, which have held protests against the case in European cities.

Mariella Gramaglia, a Rome civic official who was in Katsina to observe the case, said her main concern was to see that Lawal’s human rights are respected.

Extramarital sex “is not such a crime that should attract the death penalty,” she said.