Stoning death appeal postponed again

The Sharia'h appeals court in Nigeria's northern Katsina State on Tuesday postponed for the third time hearing the appeal against a stoning death sentence on a 31-year-old mother. The court said there were not enough judges to form a quorum. Amina Lawal was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in March 2002 by a lower Sharia'h court after she had a child out of wedlock. The sentence was confirmed by an upper Sharia'h court last year, prompting her appeal to the regional appeals court. Katsina Sharia'h court registrar Dalhat Abubakar said Lawal's case was being postponed till 27 August because two of the four judges on the appeals panel were currently serving in election tribunals. It was expected, he added, that the two judges would conclude their "national assignment" - occasioned by last month's general elections - by the next scheduled date. Lawal, who was in court with her two-year-old daughter, expressed anxiety at the continuing delays over the case. "This is the third time we've been here and the court has not sat. Only God knows when it will be over," she told reporters. Katsina State is one of a dozen states in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north that have adopted the strict application of Islamic law in the past four years. Prescribed punishments under the law include amputation of limbs for stealing, public flogging for drinking alcohol and stoning to death for adultery. President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has condemned the application of Sharia'h punishments on the grounds they contravene Nigeria's constitution. But the government says it is constrained to intervene by the country's federal structure where the states have autonomy to enact laws. The introduction of strict Sharia'h has increased tensions between the country's Muslim north and the Chrisitian-dominated south, leading to outbreaks of sectarian violence in which thousands of people have died. Lawal's case and previous similar ones have also drawn outrage from the international community, especially human rights and women groups. Mariella Gramaglia, a human rights activist from Rome, who was in court to witness the proceedings, said her main concern was the rights of Lawal. "I think Nigerian advocates should do all they can to make her live. I hope she will be saved," she said.