An Islamic court in the northern Nigerian city of Sokoto Wednesday discharged and acquitted a 28-year-old woman accused of having sex outside marriage.
Her acquittal saved her from being flogged publicly.

Judge Bawa Sahabi Tambuwal ruled that he was setting the woman, Hafsatu Abubakar, free because of contradictory evidence brought forward by witnesses.

Abubakar, who is not married and gave birth to a girl, Mainau, last month, was charged with having sex outside marriage, a crime punishable by flogging. Under the version of strict Islamic law practised in northern Nigeria, pregnancy is the sole proof required of sex outside marriage for an unmarried woman. Judge Tambuwal also said he took into consideration the fact that the woman had changed her testimony.

Initially, she said she had never been married and named the father as 35-year-old Umaru Shehu. In the last hearing she admitted that she had been married before and named her former husband of two years ago as the father.

Under Islamic law practised in Sokoto, if a woman is previously married but divorced and has sex with another man, not her husband, it is adultery and punishable by death by stoning.

But it is not considered sex outside marriage if she bears a child by her former husband for up to seven years after the divorce.
The case has raised particular concern because of another case still under appeal of a woman, 35-year-old Safiya Husaini, who was sentenced to death by stoning in October for adultery.

The next hearing in her appeal is set for March 24.

Bureau Report