Mbeki urges respect for law in stoning case
President says Nigeria's Bill of Rights may be enough to save Amina Lawal from deathSeptember 19, 2003 Edition -1
President Thabo Mbeki says the due process of law must be allowed to run its course in the case of Amina Lawal, hinting that Nigeria's Bill of Rights might be enough to save her.
Lawal (31) has been sentenced, under Nigeria's Sharia law, to death by stoning for having a baby two years after getting divorced.
She will be buried up to her neck and then stoned until she dies.
She has appealed her sentence and the Sharia Court of Appeal in Katsina, Nigeria, is expected to announce its verdict next week.
Answering questions in the National Assembly yesterday, Mbeki said if the court upheld the sentence, the case would then proceed to Nigeria's Federal Supreme Court.
"We need to make our voices heard but I would like to think that the Federal Supreme Court will deal with the matter in context of the Bill of Rights of Nigeria," he said.
Yesterday about 400 women and men braved wind and rain to march to parliament to urge the government to intervene.
Ministers Kader Asmal and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang accepted a petition and memorandum outside parliament.
The petition and memorandum from the ANC Women's League and other organisations called for Mbeki and African Union leaders to ask President Olusegun Obasanjo to grant Lawal a presidential pardon.
Asmal said Mbeki undertook to present the petition to Obasanjo.
Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini, spokesperson for the ANC said: "We are here to say that women's rights are human rights. Here in this country we fought for that. But in other countries in Africa women don't have these rights."
Rukia Cornelius from Positive Muslims, a non-governmental organisation, said: "We should re-address Sharia and bring it into context with the world we live in today. Sharia discriminates against women."
Hundreds of women, led by members of the ANCWL, gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria yesterday to submit a memorandum against the proposed stoning.
ANCWL president, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said the gathering was aimed at showing solidarity with Lawal. They hoped that Obasanjo would exercise his prerogative and save Lawal's life.
The women stood outside the office while a delegation of 10 ANCWL leaders submitted the memorandum to High Commissioner, Dr Tunji Olagunju.
Olagunju said that the federal government of Nigeria "also frowns against the death penalty, which it regards as
inappropriate and unacceptable".
