Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman, was freed from prison after being sentenced to die by hanging. She was recently arrested and held at the airport after trying to leave the African country.
She was sentenced because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. Ibrahim announced to judges that she is Christian and will remain a Christian. She was freed on Monday by a Khartoum court.
Although she escaped death sentencing, she was arrested again on Tuesday when she was trying to leave the country. They were held and questioned at the airport, according to CNN. No details are available about why Ibrahim and her family were detained.
Ibrahim’s father was Muslim, but she married a Christian man. Her wedding took place in southern Sudan in a church ceremony in 2011.
Sudan’s penal code does not allow Muslims to convert to other religions, a crime punishable by death. Muslim women in Sudan cannot marry non-Muslims.
The case has drawn the attention of the international community. Amnesty International calls it “abhorrent.”
The government of the United States is also weighing in. U.S. Representative Chris Smith met with the Sudanese Ambassador to discuss Ibrahim’s case, Associated Press.