Amina Lawal, condemned to death in Katsina state, northern Nigeria, for adultery will learn whether or not she will be stoned to death on Sept. 25.
Lawal's attorney filed an appeal against the confirmation of her death sentence by the Upper Sharia Court in Funtua last year.
The 31-year-old mother was convicted in March last year by a lower Sharia court in Funtua for adultery and sentenced to death by stoning for giving birth to a baby girl more than nine months after being divorced. She appealed against the ruling to the Upper Sharia court hoping to get her sentence quashed, but on August 10 the same year, the court confirmed the death sentence.
''We hereby uphold the judgment of the Bakori Sharia court that decreed that you be sentenced to death by stoning,'' said the presiding judge, Abdullahi Aliyu Katsina, in confirming the death sentence. However, the judge said Amina would have to wean her eight-month old baby for three years before she was killed.
After listening to Amina's counsel, Aliyu Musa Yawuri, during the resumed hearing this week, the five Sharia judges agreed to issue a judgment on her appeal on September 25.
Yawuri had told the court that under Islamic law, there is a provision that a woman could carry a ''sleeping embryo” for a period of five years commencing from the date of divorce. ''Amina was divorced for about 10 months when she delivered her child, so the court ought to have applied the law in her favor,'' Yawuri argued.
The lawyer also told the Sharia judges that Amina had withdrawn a confession of guilt made in March last year, but in her first appeal before the upper Sharia court, the request was rejected.
However, the prosecution argued that the confessional statement could only be withdrawn if an alternative explanation for her pregnancy was submitted, which he said was not done.
Soon after the March ruling by the upper Sharia court, local human rights organizations as well as the international community, led by Amnesty International, condemned the judgment and began campaigns against the sentence. Several signatures have been compiled by right activists in Nigeria and the United States for example, in the effort to save Amina's life.
''We are very worried that in this particular case, the judgment is not, for instance, compatible with the Nigerian constitution and Nigeria's obligation to international instruments and the African charter on human rights. We are hoping that the woman will be given the right to enjoy her right of appeal,'' said Steven Callow, spokesman for Amnesty International.
Her counsel and human rights activist, Hawa Ibrahim, who filed the appeal before the Sharia appeal court in Katsina state, said Nigeria is a signatory to international instruments among which such death sentences should not be carried out, describing the judgment as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Worried by the negative impact of a conviction and killing of Amina on Nigeria internationally, the government has assured that nobody would be put to death through stoning.
Assuring the international community of government's position, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dubem Onyia said: ''The ruling is not a travesty of justice as there are higher courts yet to examine the case.
The Nigerian government has never undermined the rights of its citizens and will not look away when these rights are threatened. It is worthy to mention that in the history of justice in Nigeria, no woman has ever been punished in such dastardly manner as pre-empted by this case and this will not be an exception.''
''The Nigerian constitution stands supreme in this case. In the working of our constitution, the true character of federalism is allowed to operate in which case state laws are allowed to operate freely but as in every true federalism in interpretation of such laws, when the state laws impinge on federal laws, the federal laws usually supersede,'' Onyia said.
Amina Lawal is the second woman to be condemned to death for adultery. Safiya Hussein, who was earlier condemned by the lower Sharia court for having a baby out of wedlock, was set free by a higher Sharia court following serious international pressure and outcry by human rights activists and the timely intervention of the presidency.
Nigeria narrowly escaped being turned to a pariah state for the second time after the era of late General Sani Abacha but for the verdict of the Sharia appeal court, which overturned the ruling and set her free. Safiya is today a citizen of Rome, Italy.
Analysts believe Amina Lawal will eventually be set free by the Sharia court of appeal, given the precedent set when 30-year-old Safiya was set free by the Appeal court following an outcry from rights activists.
They are also in agreement that even if the Sharia appeals court confirms the death sentence, she could still appeal to a higher court as a next stage before turning to the Supreme Court for interpretation of the legal system.
Biola Lawal, vice chairman of the Gowon Estate Central Mosque in Lagos, told IPS: ''Islam is a very compassionate religion. In Islam, if someone murders another person and he is put on trial, the family of the dead person can show compassion, but the murderer has to pay some compensation to the family of the dead person.''
''In the case of adultery, it depends on what the woman pleaded in court. If she deceives the judges on earth, she can not deceive God on judgment day. Even in the time of Prophet Mohammed, sinners go to confess without being forced. It takes a high development of faith to surrender to God''.
Biola Lawal does not agree that the judges will set her free based on international pressure. ''I don't think the judges will want to say because the West is against their action, they will compromise. If I were in their shoes, I will not, because of judgment day. I will be held accountable for the deed.''
He is of the conviction that Muslim youths in northern Nigeria will not go on the streets to demonstrate against any judgment setting Amina free, but warned that society must be careful not to allow immorality to thrive in Africa to avoid unpleasant repercussions from God.
Sharia was first introduced in Zamfara State northern Nigeria as a political tool by the campaigning Governor Yerima Sani in 1999. Eleven other northern states have since joined the bandwagon and many people, both men and women, have faced different punishments leading to amputations for stealing and strokes of the cane for drinking alcohol.