Meriam Ibrahim freed again after US apology

From 'The Times' :

A Christian woman who was condemned to death, acquitted and rearrested as she tried to flee Sudan, was released for a second time yesterday after a senior US diplomat apologised for issuing her with a visa.
Meriam Ibrahim was seized at Khartoum airport on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after an appeal court overturned her convictions for adultery and apostasy and ordered her release.
Agents from Sudan’s national intelligence and security service accused her of having a false passport and charged her with impersonation. She was arrested with her husband, Daniel Wani, an American citizen, and their infant children Martin and Maya, who was born in prison.
They had arrived at Khartoum airport in an American embassy car. Ms Ibrahim, 27, was travelling on a recently issued South Sudanese passport, with a visa to enter the United States. America’s charge d’affaires in Khartoum, Jerry Lanier, was summoned to the ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday.
A source familiar with the case said that Ms Ibrahim may have to stay in Sudan, but Abu Bakr al-Sideeg, a foreign ministry spokesman, said she could leave if she “follows the required legal procedures and holds the proper identification papers”. She had faced 100 lashes for adultery and death by hanging for renouncing Islam.

Christian mother Meriam Ibrahim freed, then detained again.

Meriam Ibrahim, a Christian mother sentenced to death for apostasy in Sudan, has been cleared on appeal and freed from prison – only to be detained at the airport with her family as they tried to leave the country.   
The 27-year-old was released from Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison on Monday (23 June) along with her two children, 22-month-old son Martin and newborn Maya, who have been locked up with her. They were reunited with Daniel Wani, Meriam’s husband and the children’s father.

Meriam with her two children, Martin and newborn Maya, in prison

But on Tuesday (24 June), the family were detained at Khartoum airport by around 40 security agents as they tried to leave the country, to go to the US. The powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said Meriam was arrested after she presented emergency travel documents issued by the South Sudanese embassy while carrying an American visa. She has been charged with obtaining a false travel document, which is punishable with a jail sentence. The family are being held at Khartoum police station.
The BBC’s James Copnall said it is very possible that the NISS, which frequently intervenes in the country’s politics, did not like the decision to release Meriam, and re-arresting her and her family was a way of making this point to the rest of the Sudanese government.
The matter has now escalated into a diplomatic row, with the Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoning the American and South Sudanese ambassadors. South Sudans presidential spokesman said the family’s travel documents were issued from the country’s embassy in Khartoum because Daniel is a South Sudanese citizen.   
Meriam’s release on Monday was ordered by Khartoum Court of Appeals, which cancelled the previous court ruling of 15 May that had sentenced Meriam to death for apostasy and to 100 lashes for adultery in a case that sparked an international outcry.
Daniel, who has dual US and South Sudanese citizenship, had previously said that the family would need to leave if Meriam was freed and has been seeking asylum for them in America. Their case has gained the support of 38 US lawmakers, who last Thursday (19 June) wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to prioritise the matter. They called for Meriam to be granted asylum or refugee status in the country and for the couple’s two children to be registered as US citizens.
The US says it is working with Sudan to ensure that Meriam can leave the country.
Although cleared of all charges, there are concerns for Meriam’s safety as well as that of her family and legal team. Meriam’s accuser, a man claiming to be her brother, had publicly warned that the family would carry out the death penalty in the event that she was acquitted. And in an interview published on Wednesday (26 June), Al Samani Al Hadi Mohamed Abdullah reinforced the threat:

Our family is not convinced by the decision of the court. The law has failed to maintain our rights, and now it is a matter of honour. Christians deface our honour, and we know how to take revenge for that.

Extremist groups in have been pressurising the government to uphold the sentence and have also issued death threats against Meriam’s legal team, saying their actions have been “un-Islamic”.  
Under the strict application of sharia law, Meriam has been regarded as a Muslim because she was born to a Muslim father, even though he left the family when she was six and her mother raised her as a Christian. She was considered to have left Islam – committed apostasy – even though she never practised it and has maintained her Christian faith throughout. Meriam was also considered to have committed adultery because, under sharia, a Muslim woman is not permitted to marry a non-Muslim man.

24 June - Update from Iraq

Dear Friends,

The situation in Iraq continues to be quite difficult for everyone; just in the past 48 hours there has been numerous attacks and countless atrocities. It still remains to be seen how effective the Iraqi Army will be against fighting the ISIS as the situation is continually changing at a very fast paced rate.  A few of the highlights of recent events include a militant attack on an Iraqi convoy in which 69 detainees were killed. Around the area of Babil province in another attack one policeman as well as eight gunmen were killed. ISIS was able to detain 57 families that were in the process of fleeing to Hawija. On top of all of these awful things there was a double explosion which was specifically targeting a funeral for a Colonel but resulted in the death of eleven people.

It is also a very sad time for the Christians in Mosul. As this past Sunday was the first Sunday in 1600 years that there was no Mass on Sunday. Mosul was the ISIS' first main objective and large city they were able to capture and to this day it still remains under their control. They have even just recently raised their flags over some of the government institutes and departments. It still remains unclear how the Iraqi Army will free the city and remove the ISIS and how long this could take.    

With much love and grace,

 

Further update from Canon Andrew White in Iraq

Middle East Update 18 June 2014

Dear Friends,

The crisis in Iraq has now been in operation for over a week. Not hundreds but thousands of people have been killed. Thousands in the Iraqi army have been killed, the military have proved that they do not have the ability or authority to control the present crisis. Whilst the crisis continues causing total havoc we do not have the privilege of just sitting back and doing nothing. We have to think beyond today, whilst providing the immediate relief that is needed we also need to think about how we are going to bring about lasting change.

In the midst of this crisis we are already thinking of the long term plans to work for reconciliation. It is a process that we have been involved intimately in for over a decade but now we are faced with a crisis of new depth. We cannot even get access to most places where we need to bring people together. We plan and pray that we will be able to again soon, at the moment this is not possible but can only hope and pray that soon we will be able to.

At the moment the crisis and division is getting worse. Even embassy's are cutting down size and leaving Iraq. At the moment it is even considered too dangerous for us to be present. We hope to return in the next few days and have so much to do. The Anglican Church is one of the few bodies working in Iraq reaching out to people whatever their religion and sect.

Meanwhile the intense conversations continue each day with political and religious leaders working at how we can overcome the radical influence of the terrorist group ISIS which is now the richest and most powerful terrorist group in the world with over $1 billion. At the moment our priority is meeting the physical relief needs of those in the crisis. We then start working on the complex reconciliation process. When that will be we do not yet know.

With much love and grace,

 

Fr Kenneth Walker F.S.S.P.

Canon Andrew White on the situation in Iraq

Dear Friends,

 

Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled. We urgently need help and support.

Please, please help us in this crisis.

Iraq is now in its worst crisis since the 2003 war. ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Group), a group that does not even see Al Qaida as extreme enough, has moved into Mosul, which is Nineveh. It has totally taken control, destroyed all government departments. Allowed all prisoners out of the prisons. Killed countless numbers of people. There are bodies over the streets. The army and police have fled, so many of the military resources have been captured. Tankers, armed vehicles and even helicopters are now in the hands of ISIS.

Mosul residents fleeing the ISIS takeover.  

The area is the heartland of the Christian community. Most of our people come from Nineveh and still see that as their home. It is there that they return to regularly. Many Christian's fled from back to Nineveh from Baghdad, as things got so bad there. Now the Christian centre of Iraq has been totally ransacked. The tanks are moving into the Christian villages destroying them and causing total carnage. The ISIS militants are now moving towards Kirkuk, major areas to the Oil fields that provide the lifeblood of Iraq. We are faced with total war that all the Iraqi military have now retreated from.

People have fled in their hundreds of thousands to Kurdistan still in Iraq for safety. The Kurds have even closed the border, preventing entry of the masses. The crisis is so huge it is almost impossible to consider what is really happening.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

The summer is by far our worst time of the year for support. Both our Foundation in the UK and US have seriously had to reduce our funding. We are in a desperate crisis. So many of our people had returned their homes in Nineveh for the summer now they are stuck in this total carnage unable to even escape. We desperately need help so that we can help the Christians of this broken land just get through this new crisis. Please can you help us, we are desperate.

The terrible fact is that ISIS are in the control now of Fallujah in the South and Mosul in the North they could now move down towards Baghdad between the two and cause a total crisis there. So to be honest I don't know what to do, do I stay or go back? I have a huge amount of commitments here. If I go back, I cannot change the situation but I want to be with my people. Here we are with this huge crisis and need and we do not even have the resources to help those most in need. So the crisis is huge and we need help, will you please help us?

With much love and grace,