By Nicole Hensle From New York Daily News

The husband of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, says only the court can reverse the decision to release his wife, despite conflicting news reports that she would be released by the Sudan government.

The lawyers for Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag are fighting a court ruling that she be hanged for apostasy after marrying a Christian man.

The fate of an imprisoned Sudanese woman — who refused to forsake her Christian faith — is geared toward execution, despite news reports heralding her imminent release.

There is no plan to release Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, said Abu-Bakr Al-Siddiq, a spokesman for Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but an appeal has been filed by lawyers on her behalf, according to her husband.

The 27-year-old woman is sentenced to 100 lashes and then death by hanging for renouncing the Islamic religion after she married a U.S. citizen, who is also Christian.

Ibrahim gave birth to a baby girl named Maya on May 26 while on death row at a Khartoum women’s prison, where her two children, including her 20-month-old son, Martin, are also staying.

Her husband, Daniel Wani, hold their newborn daughter, Maya, at a prison in Omdurman. He is appealing his wife’s death sentence. -/AFP/Getty Images Her husband, Daniel Wani, hold their newborn daughter, Maya, at a prison in Omdurman. He is appealing his wife’s death sentence.

A foreign ministry official told the BBC in a May 31 report that Ibrahim would be freed in several days, but even her husband, Daniel Wani, said only an appeals court could free his wife, according to CNN.

She was convicted of apostasy and adultery by a court on May 11 and given three days to drop Christianity, but she refused.

“I know my wife. She’s committed,” Wani added.

Wani told CNN his wife is a practicing Christian and was never a Muslim like her father because she was raised by her mother, an Ethiopian Orthodox.

Her father left their family when Ibrahim was 6, Wani said.

In Sudan, a Muslim that converts to another religion can be sentenced to death, but for women, the government waits until the convicted have weaned their children before an execution.

The Sharia law of Islam dictates the executions of women must wait at least two years following the birth of a child.

The last execution for apostasy in Sudan happened in 1985 after a man criticized the Sharia law, according to CNN.

For more on this story go to: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/woman-court-intervention-escape-death-row-article-1.1813307#ixzz33b8O7HMp

Related but conflicting story:

Sudan mother facing apostasy death sentence to be freed soon: official

From Jamaica Observer

KHARTOUM, May 31, 2014 (AFP) – A Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for apostasy will be “freed within days”, a foreign ministry official told AFP Saturday, after her case triggered an international outcry.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was condemned to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death.

“The lady will be freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be taken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice,” said Abdullah al-Azraq, a foreign ministry undersecretary.

Azraq, who spoke via telephone from London, did not elaborate.

The 27-year-old gave birth to a baby girl on Tuesday in a women’s prison in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman.

Her husband, US citizen Daniel Wani, visited Ishag and the baby on Thursday, after being denied access earlier in the week, and told AFP both were in “good health”.

Ishag was born to a Muslim father but told the court during her trial that she had never been a Muslim herself.

The court gave her three days to “recant” her faith and when she refused, Ishag was handed the death penalty and sentenced to 100 lashes for “adultery”.

Under Sudan’s interpretation of sharia, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man, so any such relationship is regarded as adulterous.

Her case sparked international condemnation.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday he was “appalled” by the “barbaric” sentence given to Ishag.

Britain and Canada had summoned the Sudanese envoys to their countries last week and told them the sentence violated Sudan’s international human rights obligations.

United Nations experts have called the conviction “outrageous” and said it must be overturned.

An appeal was filed against the verdict but defence attorney Mohannad Mustapha said a hearing that was to have been held on Wednesday was postponed because the case file was incomplete.

For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Sudan-mother-facing-apostasy-death-sentence-to-be-freed-soon–official

See related iNews Cayman story in iNews Briefs published May 19 2014 “Sudanese women sentenced to death for marrying Christian man” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/inews-briefs-118/