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A woman forced to give birth in shackles earlier this week while imprisoned in Sudan was set to be freed tonight following an international outcry.

Mother-of-two Meriam Ibrahim had been facing the death sentence for having abandoned the Islamic faith.

Now she is expected to be released in a few days’ time, a Sudanese official told the BBC.

The news comes after world leaders and the British Government united in protest at the “barbaric” sentence handed down to Meriam, 27.

Earlier this month a court ruled that Meriam was a Muslim like her father, despite even though she had been raised a Christian like her mother after her dad left the family when she was aged six.

As well as the death sentence, Meriam, who is married to a Christian, was sentenced to 100 lashes.

Raising the likelihood that she would soon be freed, Abdullahi Alazreg – an under-secretary at the Sudan foreign ministry – told the BBC that Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting her.

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg had all said they were appalled at the treatment of Meriam, who gave birth to a daughter in her cell at a women’s prison in Karthoum on Tuesday.

She had appealed against her sentence, but was due to be whipped and then executed in two years after her baby was weaned.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said her incarceration was “utterly appalling and an abhorrent abuse of her human rights”.

He added: “Nobody should be ­persecuted because of the religion they practise or the person they fall in love with.”

Mr Cameron said the treatment of Meriam had “no place in today’s world”.

Mr Clegg also said her case was “abhorrent”.

Meanwhile former Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the UK should reconsider whether it was “acceptable” to give aid money to “states which allow treatment such as that handed out to Meriam Ibrahim”.

Meriam’s husband Daniel Wani, a Christian Sudanese man with US ­citizenship who lives in New Hampshire, said today he had been hopeful the appeal would succeed.

His wife was convicted of apostasy – the renunciation of faith – two weeks ago while she was eight months’ ­pregnant.

She was imprisoned with her 20-month-old son.

Sudanese officials had said the toddler was free to leave at any time, according to her lawyer Mohamed Jar Elnabi.

Meriam’s husband uses a wheelchair and says he “totally depends on her for all details of his life”.

(Image: Handout)

He said he had seen his new daughter, who they have called Maya, in prison on Wednesday, and his wife and the baby were both doing well.

But he said he was most concerned about his son, who has been living with his mother in prison since February.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International had also been involved, launching a petition calling for the Sudanese government to release Meriam.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population and Islamic law has been in force there since the 1980s.