Obasanjo expects judiciary to overturn stoning case

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Saturday he expected the judiciary to overturn the sentence of death by stoning passed on a 30-year-old woman for giving birth outside marriage. In his first public comment on the controversial sentence on Amina Lawal, which was upheld by a higher Islamic court in the northern state of Katsina last week, the president failed to give any firm indication that he would intervene against the sentence. "I do sincerely hope that we will get through it, that Amina will not die," Obasanjo told reporters in the presidential residence in Abuja. "But if for any reason she is killed, I will weep for Amina and her family, I will weep for myself, and I will weep for Nigeria." Amina Lawal was first sentenced to death on adultery charges in the small town of Bakori in March, according to the dictates of the Islamic or Shari'ah legal code, after giving birth to a child out of wedlock. A man she said fathered the baby was discharged for lack of evidence. An Upper Shari'ah Court in the town of Funtua upheld the sentence last week. Lawal's lawyers have said they will appeal to a higher court. Under Nigeria's judicial system, the appeal could reach the Supreme Court if the sentence is not quashed at the state appeal level or the federal court of appeal. Even if Lawal fails to secure a reprieve through the courts, the president has the prerogative of granting her clemency. Obasanjo did not indicate on Saturday whether or not he would take that step if the case goes that far. Lawal is the second woman to be sentenced to death by stoning since about a dozen states in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria began introducing the controversial Shari'ah code in 2000. Safiya Husseini was sentenced to death in Sokoto State last year. But the verdict was quashed on 19 March, the same day Lawal received her sentence.