Sudanese christian woman escapes gallows leaves with Italian Govt. support

Mangalore Today News Network

Rome/Khartoum, July 25, 2014:   Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity, then detained after her conviction was quashed. She flew into Rome on an Italian government plane  July 24 and hours later met the Pope.  

The woman, whose sentence and detention triggered international outrage, walked off the aircraft cradling her baby and was greeted by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.

Soon afterwards, Ibrahim, her husband and two children had a private meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican. “The Pope thanked her for her witness to faith,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

The meeting, which lasted around half an hour, was intended as a „sign of closeness and solidarity for all those who suffer for their faith,“ he added.   There were no details on what led up to the 27-yearold’s departure after a month in limbo in Khartoum, but a senior Sudanese official said it had been cleared by the government. “The authorities did not prevent her departure that was known and approved in advance,“ the official said.

Ibrahim was accompanied on the plane by Italy’s vice minister for foreign affairs, Lapo Pistelli. He told journalists at Ciampino airport that Italy had been in “constant dialogue” with Sudan but did not give any more details on Rome’s role in securing her exit.

Recap :  Ibrahim was sentenced to death in May on charges of converting from Islam to Christianity and marrying a Christian South SudaneseAmerican.  Her conviction was quashed last month, but Sudans government accused her of trying to leave the country with falsified papers, preventing her departure for the United States with her husband and two children.  She was initially detained, then released and moved into the US embassy in Khartoum. 

Ibrahim says she was born and raised as a Christian by an Ethiopian family in Sudan and later abducted by a Sudanese Muslim family.  The Muslim family denies that and filed a lawsuit to have her marriage annulled last week in a new attempt to stop her leaving the country. That case was later dropped.