Amina Lawal’s victory. Al-hamdulillah, an Islamic appeals court in Nigeria has overturned the conviction of Amina Lawal:
He noted that under some interpretations of Shariah, babies can remain in gestation in a mother’s womb for over five years, opening the possibility that her ex-husband — whom she divorced two years before giving birth — could have fathered the child.
Mai-Unguwa also said the policeman who first arrested Lawal in 2002 should have been flogged because he did so in violation of Islamic law, which requires four witnesses to the crime. Lawal was not “caught in the act,” Mai-Unguwa said.
Ibrahim, the defense lawyer, welcomed the decision.
“It’s a victory for law. It’s a victory for justice, and it’s a victory for what we stand for — dignity and fundamental human rights,” she said, smiling broadly.
Lead prosecutor Nurulhuda Mohammad Darma said he was “satisfied” with the ruling. The state has 30 days to appeal, but Darma said that was unlikely.
As I explained when I first posted on this issue last December, the conviction of Lawal was a travesty perpetrated by people who are either ignorant of Islamic jurisprudence or uninterested in applying it properly. [Al-Muhajabah’s Islamic Blogs]
There’s considerable irony in this poor woman being spared from a barbaric punishment for a non-existent crime in part because of a ludicrous defense that nobody could possibly take seriously.
I very much doubt the policeman will receive any punishment, flogging or otherwise. They never do.
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