From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/international/africa/26NIGE.html


As Stoning Case Proceeds, Nigeria Stands Trial
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

ATSINA, Nigeria, Jan. 23 — At the Shariah court of appeals here this
morning, the chief judge presiding over the case of Amina Lawal, the peasant
woman sentenced to death by stoning for having slept with a man who was not
her husband, refused to comment on the guilt or innocence of the defendant
before him.

It is "sub juris" — still pending — the judge explained, relying on the
Latin he had learned in law school.

But his opinion on the matter of fornication was unambiguous. "The best
deterrent is the death sentence, for people to see what happens to a
fornicator," said Grand Khadi Aminu Ibrahim Katsina, the judge. "They watch
you be stoned to death. They wouldn't want it to happen to them. So it
definitely would be a deterrent."

Whether Ms. Lawal will meet such a fate is yet to be decided. Seeking
justice, she had come this morning to the grand khadi's courtroom, the
highest Islamic court in the land. But justice, as it often is in courts of
a more conventional sort, was put off for another day. After less than 10
minutes of legal niceties, the five-man panel of judges adjourned the case
for another two months.

For Ms. Lawal, 30 — illiterate, unemployed and rocking Wasila, the
1-year-old product of her adulterous union, in her arms — death was no more
near or far.

The verdict, when it does come, holds enormous significance, not for Ms.
Lawal alone but for the future of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation,
which is on the verge of tearing apart along Muslim-Christian lines.

Even though Nigeria is technically a secular democracy, Shariah, or Islamic
law, has swept through its northern, largely Muslim states over the last
three years. It has emerged as a bellwether issue in the elections
approaching in April.

President Olesegun Obasanjo, a Christian southerner responsible for holding
together this country of 130 million, has had to walk a delicate political
line on the matter. The case of Ms. Lawal, in particular, has drawn
international reproach.

But this morning, sitting in his chambers, the grand khadi was impassive.
"This case is an ordinary case," he said. "It is as simple as drinking
water."

If the Shariah court of appeals here ultimately upholds the verdict of the
lower courts, Ms. Lawal would be the first Nigerian to be executed under the
Islamic code. It would be likely to inflame religious passions in this
country as well as to bring the country's guarantee of states' rights into
conflict with its constitutional ban on capital punishment.

From this courtroom, the case can proceed to a federal non-Shariah court and
ultimately to the Nigerian Supreme Court. Mr. Obasanjo has already said the
Nigerian Constitution would see to it that Ms. Lawal's life is spared.

Her story goes like this. She was a divorced woman living in her father's
house in Kurami, a village roughly 90 minutes from here, when someone
reported to the authorities that she had borne a child out of wedlock. She
confessed, but not much of a confession was needed. A newborn girl served as
proof of her crime.

The man she identified as the father of her child denied the charge. He
swore on the Holy Koran, and that was that — the court judged him innocent.
To prove his guilt under Koranic law would require testimonies of four
witnesses to the fornication itself. No one suggested DNA tests.

Shariah governs family law in a wide range of countries, but it has been
applied to criminal offenses only in a handful of states, like Saudi Arabia,
Iran and — most visibly to the rest of the world — in Afghanistan when it
was under Taliban rule. In Nigeria, which has 130 million people, 12 of the
country's 36 states have put Shariah into effect since 1999, though the code
does not apply to Christians living in those states.

Shariah governs everything from prayers and meals to custody battles and
sexual behavior.

Cynics see the Shariah wave as nothing more than a way for northern Muslim
politicians to score cheap points. Proponents insist that it is a far better
alternative to the common law that British rulers imposed. Shariah, they
say, is fairer, swifter and God-given. The chief prosecutor of Katsina
state, Solicitor General Hamza Y. Kurfi, went as far as to call it "a
dividend of democracy."

"The people asked for it," he said. "The government is doing the bidding of
the people."

Shariah law was introduced in Katsina state a little more than a year ago.
But Mr. Kurfi had looked forward to it since he graduated from law school in
1978.

"I think the system is the most liberal legal system I've seen in the
world," he said. He pointed to the provision that allows even someone
convicted of a capital offense to remain free while the case is going
through appeal.

Look at Ms. Lawal, he said. She can come and go as she pleases. She can live
in her father's house. She can go to the market. "In America, the moment
you're accused, you're chained," he said passionately. "I think that's more
inhuman."

But in America, it was pointed out, a woman is not stoned to death for
adultery.

To be stoned to death here on earth, he reasoned, is to be spared of eternal
hellfire in the hereafter. "If you suffer punishment now, you will not
suffer punishment in the hands of God," he said.

But death by stoning does not sound like much consolation.

"That's a lot of consolation for a believer," he insisted. "The worst that
can happen here is you die. There you continue suffering."

Does it bother his conscience that a woman may be stoned until she dies?

The burden of proof is high, he responded, and there are avenues for appeal.
"Until all the avenues are exhausted, we can't think about stoning anybody,"
he maintained.

The Shariah court here, not much older than Ms. Lawal's baby girl, is an odd
experiment, cobbling together the customs of British law and the tenets of
Islamic law. The courtroom is a former state government building, newly
painted sea blue.

"Cooourt," the bailiff bellowed as the judges walked in in gray-blue caftans
and white turbans, all except the grand khadi, whose head wrap was made of
gold netting, reminiscent of a Brooklyn disco dance floor, circa 1981. The
lawyers from both sides were dressed in black gowns and straw-colored wigs,
among the oddest remnants of British colonial rule here.

Alone, Ms. Lawal sat on the edge of a bench in the far right of the
courtroom. For much of the proceedings, her baby slumbered against her back,
head falling to the right, mouth wide open. Under her sentence, Ms. Lawal is
to be stoned to death in a public square when the child is weaned, this time
next year.

As unkind as death by stoning might seem, the grand khadi said, such a
punishment is necessary to uphold the sanctity of marriage. Under God's law,
he said, marriage was created for a reason: to produce children one can call
one's own.

"Islamic law prescribes that adultery and fornication are offenses that
carry punishment," he explained. "If this girl were a spinster, if she had
never married, they would never sentence her to death. They would sentence
her to 100 lashes of the cane."

Why?

"Only Allah knows," he said at first.

Then: "If she has never married, she doesn't know whether this is sweet,
nice, bitter. If this woman was married before, she knows."

Allow such an act to go unpunished, he went on, and it will happen again and
again. "Someone will walk into my house and force my wife and do it with
her," he said. "We shouldn't allow it to spread."

Another convicted adulterer faced execution under Shariah in nearby Sokoto
state, but her case has since been dismissed by a Shariah court of appeals
on technical grounds.

Ms. Lawal's lawyer, Aliyu Musa Yawuri, plans to raise some technicalities in
his appeal: the charges were not sufficiently explained to Ms. Lawal, she
did not understand the consequences of a confession. Nor, he said, did the
lower court judge fully understand the legal requirements for proving
adultery under the Shariah penal code. His appeal will be heard on March 25.
It may be a matter of hours, or months, until the five-man panel issues its
decision.

So Ms. Lawal must wait. She had expected some progress today, she said back
in her village at the close of the day. But she is also prepared to wait
until the case makes its way up the legal ladder, all the way up to the
Supreme Court. Her legal team will push on her behalf, she said, and in the
end, God will provide.

"I have committed everything in the hands of God," she said.

She had nothing to say about the pros and cons of Shariah. She did not want
to talk about the confession that landed her in this mess.

What did she want for her daughter? "Even though her destiny is in the hands
of God," she said, "I would like for her to be a lawyer."






_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~