Nigerian Court Ponders Stoning Case


SOKOTO, Nigeria - Prosecutors rejected calls Monday to overturn a
landmark decision by an Islamic court condemning a Nigerian woman to 
death by stoning on charges of adultery.

After a day of arguments before an appeals panel Monday, the case was
adjourned until March 25, when a ruling was expected.

Safiya Hussaini was sentenced in October to be stoned to death while buried up to her neck in sand after an Islamic court convicted her of conceiving a child with a married neighbor in violation of Shariah, or Islamic law.

Lawyers, activists, journalists and a few members of Hussaini's family packed 
into a sweltering courtroom Monday in the northern city of Sokoto, the traditional Muslim capital of northern Nigeria, where a panel of Muslim elders was hearing the appeal.

Hussaini showed up wearing a white shawl and cradling her 13-month-old
daughter, Adama - the product of the union that prompted authorities to put
her on trial. Adama cried during the hearing until Hussaini began nursing the  child and fanning her with a piece of paper.

Under the October ruling, which has been placed on hold pending her 
appeal, Hussaini could be executed as soon as her child stops nursing.  "I'm happy to be here, but I will not rest at ease until this is finished," Hussaini said.

Prosecutors began by rebutting defense motions - made in January - to 
throw the case out because four witnesses had not testified to seeing the act 
of adultery being committed, something the defense said was required by 
Islamic law.

But prosecution lawyer Mohammed Bara'u Kamarawa argued Monday that 
witnesses were not needed because the evidence - Adama's birth last year - was 
enough. The prosecution further argued that Hussaini had initially confessed to
adultery, a claim the defense denied.

Hussaini and her lawyers say she was impregnated by her former husband
before their divorce "some years ago." Although the infant was born 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.

During the original case, Hussaini claimed to have been raped by her neighbor, Yakubu Abubakar. She withdrew the rape accusation after Abubakar fled, apparently fearing arrest.

In a positive sign for the defense, Bello Silame, the chief Islamic judge presiding over Monday's appeal, noted the alleged adultery occurred before Shariah law came into effect last year.

Kamarawa, the prosecutor, agreed but argued that Shariah law should be
applied retroactively. The case is stirring 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 and European Union  parliamentarians have all condemned the ruling.