ABUJA, Nigeria - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton asked Nigeria to spare the life of a mother condemned by an Islamic court to be stoned to death for having sex outside marriage.
Amina Lawal, 31, was sentenced in March by a court in northern Nigeria, after she gave birth to a girl. An Islamic appeals court upheld the judgment in August although her lawyers have since launched a second appeal.
"I hope and pray that the legal system will find a way to pardon a young woman convicted to death for bearing a child out of wedlock," Clinton said Tuesday in a public lecture to an audience that included Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The plea was personal, "as a fellow human being," and not "on behalf of the United States government," the former president stressed.
Clinton said he hoped Lawal's case would end in a similar way as that of Safiya Husseini, the first Nigerian woman to be similarly tried and sentenced. Husseini successfully appealed her conviction in March.
"This is something you've done once before and I hope it will happen again," he said.
Clinton said Islam had a tradition of "protecting such rights for women and protecting children." Prophet Mohammed, the religion's founder, was married to a successful businesswoman, a sign he respected women, the former U.S. president added.
"I can tell you the world will be cheering" if Lawal is released, Clinton said. "It is a small thing for a great nation to forgive."
Clinton made the comments during a speech on democratization to an audience that included several other West African leaders. Clinton earlier visited Ghana and is also expected to visit Rwanda, Mozambique and South Africa.
Lawal's case has provoked international outcry by governments and human rights organizations who have urged Obasanjo's government to intercede. The European Parliament has urged a boycott of the Miss World pageant, set for November in the Nigerian capital, in protest of the stoning sentence.
Anger over the imposition of Islamic law, or sharia, by a dozen northern states since 2000 has resulted in several outbreaks of Muslim-Christian violence resulting in thousands killed.