Woman to Face Death by Stoning for Adultery

October 19, 2001 08:27 AM ET

LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian Muslim sharia court has sentenced a nursing mother to death by stoning after she was convicted of adultery, a Nigerian newspaper reported on Friday.

The court in Sokoto state in northern Nigeria convicted Safiya Hussaini for adultery and ordered she be stoned to death once she has finished weaning her baby, state-owned Daily Times newspaper said.

The court acquitted Yakubu Abubakar whom Hussaini said made her pregnant. She has 30 days to appeal the sentence.

Sokoto government officials were not immediately available for comment. Sokoto is one of more than a dozen states in predominantly Islamic northern Nigeria which have proclaimed sharia law.

Multi-ethnic Nigeria is bitterly divided over sharia law, which was first adopted by Zamfara state in 1999.

Hundreds of people were killed in 2000 in bouts of Christian-Muslim bloodletting after some northern states adopted sharia law.

Hussaini, a housewife, was not put in custody but was told she had to present herself on the appropriate date for execution.

"If she fails to do so, the police and the general public will be used to bring her to court," the Daily Times quoted presiding judge Mohammed Sanyinnawal as saying.

A court in Zamfara state last year acquitted a man who impregnated a teenage girl. She was sentenced to caning.

Rights groups describe sharia court sentences as barbaric and a violation of fundamental human rights.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 2001