Nigeria acquits adultery defendant


Safiya Husseini became pregnant outside marriage

A court in Nigeria has upheld the appeal of a Muslim woman who had been
convicted of adultery under Islamic law and sentenced to death by stoning.


Safiya Husaini won her case after the court in the northern town of Sokoto said
the original ruling was unsound.

In the courtroom, Safiya, smiling broadly, was surrounded by the world's media
holding her one-year-old daughter in her arms.

It was the conception of this child out of wedlock that had been proof enough
at the first trial of her adultery.

But in Monday's ruling, the judge said that, because the alleged act had taken
place before adultery became a criminal offence under Islamic law, the case
should be dismissed.

The BBC Lagos correspondent Dan Isaacs says the ruling will be welcomed by
human rights groups around the world.


Sharia law

Anti-adultery laws, however, remain on the statute books in Nigeria's northern
states.

Under Islamic law as practised in Nigeria, pregnancy outside marriage - even
for a divorcee - is sufficient evidence to convict a woman.

In the court case, the man accused of fathering the child was found not guilty.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is himself a devout Christian, had called for
Safiya's acquittal.

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