Rights organisation condemns woman's death sentence

The New York-based rights organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has condemned a recent ruling by an Islamic court in northern Nigeria that sentenced Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu to death by stoning after finding her guilty of having pre-marital sex. "Women have a basic right to control their sexual autonomy," the executive director of HRW's Women's Rights Division, LaShawn Jefferson, said in a news release on Tuesday. "When a woman is punished so severely for having pre-marital sex, her right to make free decisions regarding her body is violated," she stated. The Islamic court in Gwadabawa, Sokoto State, sentenced Tungar-Tudu to death after finding her guilty of having pre-marital sex, an offence punishable under the Muslim legal code also known as Sharia. Tungar-Tudu who is pregnant, has until 8 November to file an appeal, HRW said. The man she allegedly had sex with was set free by the same court after concluding that it lacked "sufficient evidence" to prosecute him for the alleged adultery, the organisation added. In stating that international law strictly prohibits the imposition of capital punishment on a pregnant woman, HRW has called on the Nigerian government to intervene in the matter. Two Nigerian rights groups and a Paris-based organisation have also condemned the court's ruling.