NZ Bishops urge Sudan to remove apostasy provision

Friday, June 27th, 2014

The Catholic bishops of New Zealand have strongly urged the government of Sudan to remove the charge of apostasy from its penal code in order to align the code with its Constitution and international commitments.

They did this in a letter to the Sudanese ambassador to New Zealand His Excellency Mr Abd Al Rahim Al Siddig Mohamed Omer, who is resident in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In the letter the Bishops say that the situation of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the Christian Sudanese mother recently sentenced to 100 lashes and to death was a matter of grave concern to us and to all New Zealanders.

“A young mother of two children was sentenced to lashing and hanging when provision for the charges brought against her should not exist in the Constitution and are specifically ruled out by Sudan acceding to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

They have expressed relief that the charges against her have been overturned and that she is free,

But they say the government of Sudan should to remove the charge of apostasy from its penal code in order to align the code with its Constitution and international commitments.

Ms Ibrahim and her family were briefly re-arrested while trying to leave the country for the US before being released again.

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, said the Sudanese government had informed American officials that Ms Ibrahim and her family were “temporarily detained” over issues relating to their travel documents.

Read Archbishop Dew’s letter

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