Sentenced: Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, was in front of a Khartoum court this week accused of apostasy

A pregnant Sudanese doctor has been sentenced to death after refusing to recant her Christian faith.

Meriam Ibrahim Ishag was born to a Muslim father but married a Christian man in 2011.

The 26-year-old, who is eight months pregnant and has an 18-month-old son, was convicted of apostasy – or renouncing her faith – by a court in Khartoum.

‘We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death,’ Judge Abbas al-Khalifa told her.


He also ordered her to be given 100 lashes. Earlier in the hearing, she calmly told the judge: ‘I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy.’



The sentence will not be carried out until her unborn child is at least two years old.

Fifty people demonstrated against the sentences and her lawyers will appeal.

‘The fact a woman has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent,’ said Amnesty International.

‘Adultery and apostasy are acts which should not be considered crimes at all.’

The British, US and Canadian embassies have called on Sudan to respect her right to change her faith.