Lawyers team up against the death penalty

A consortium of Nigerian lawyers opposed to the death penalty, are representing Safiya Husseini Tungar Tudu, the 30-year-old woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, in the northern state of Sokoto. An appeal hearing against the sentence on Monday was adjourned until 18 March. Safiya changed an earlier claim of rape, saying the baby at the centre of the case, was fathered by her former husband. Under Sharia (Islamic) law this would not be considered an offence and she could be acquitted, Nigerian media reported on Tuesday. Monday's adjournment was to give time to prosecution lawyers to study the new evidence presented by lead counsel, Abdulkadir Ibrahim Imam, who leads the 11-member consortium including lawyers from human rights groups, women NGOs, and representatives of the federal government. Safiya was convicted by a Sharia court last year, on grounds that she committed adultery after divorcing her husband. The man involved in the affair, who is not bound by the same law, earlier confessed to the police but later denied ever meeting her. Harsh punishments under Sharia, such as death by stoning or amputation of limbs for theft, have been introduced in many northern Nigerian states over the past two years. Although amputations have been carried out in Sokoto, no woman has been stoned to death. On 8 January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the execution of a man on the orders of a Sharia court in Katsine state, and urged the Nigerian authorities not carry out the death sentences of such courts. "As the first execution under Sharia in Nigeria, we fear that this may signal a willingness on the part of the authorities to carry out further death sentences in future," Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of HRW's Africa Division, said. "The death penalty is an inhuman, degrading and cruel punishment which cannot be justified in any circumstance, however brutal the crime of which the defendant is accused," he added.