Christian Woman in Sudan Accused of Forging Docs

Meriam Ibrahim re-arrested, status now not entirely clear
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 25, 2014 6:52 AM CDT
Christian Woman in Sudan Accused of Forging Docs
In a June 5, 2014, photo from Al Fajer, a Sudan NGO, Meriam Ibrahim sits next to her son and holds the daughter she gave birth to in jail, as the NGO visits her in a room at a prison in Khartoum.    (AP Photo/Al Fajer)

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christianity, was re-arrested yesterday after an appeals court annulled her sentence because Sudan's national security agency says she forged the documents allowing her to leave the country. But Ibrahim's lawyer tells the BBC her papers are genuine; the emergency travel documents were issued by South Sudan, he says.

Ibrahim, who was detained along with her husband and two children at the airport as they prepared to leave for the US, is being held at a police station, her lawyer says. Her husband and children are believed to have been released and staying at the embassy, which also says Ibrahim's travel documents are legitimate. But it's not clear exactly what's going on with the family—stories yesterday said Ibrahim had been only briefly re-arrested, then released again, and a US State Department spokesperson told the Guardian Ibrahim had only been "temporarily detained for several hours over questions related to their documents," not arrested. (More Meriam Ibrahim stories.)

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