Edited by John R. Houk
© June 26, 2014
Apparently Meriam Ibrahim has been released again. This time after being interrogated by the Sudanese version of the secret police - National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS aka Agents of Fear). Just prior to boarding a plane with the eventual destination of the USA 40 NISS agents swooped down on the family of Daniel Wani and Meriam Ibrahim under the accusation of attempting to leave Sudan with forged documents.
Below I am cross posting two UK news sources that seem to provide the best details that led to Meriam’s re-arrest and release. The first is shorter and kind of gives a reason for Meriam’s latest release. The second a bit longer gives greater detail of how the re-arrest came about at the Khartoum International Airport by the ‘Agents of Fear’.
JRH 6/26/14
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Meriam Ibrahim: Sudanese apostasy woman released after being arrested at airport over 'forged travel documents'
Ms Ibrahim was being questioned by police after she was detained again at Khartoum airport
By HEATHER SAUL
26 June 2014
Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian woman who saw her death sentence for apostasy overturned this week, has been released on Thursday after being accused of attempting to use forged travel documents by passport officials.
Ms Ibrahim was detained along with her Christian-American husband Daniel Wani and two young children at Khartoum airport in Sudan for trying to use documents issued by the South Sudanese embassy to flee the country.
Eman Abdul-Rahman, the lawyer for 27-year-old, said she was released from a police station today after foreign diplomats pressed the government to free her.
In Washington, the State Department said embassy staff had been in touch with Ms Ibrahim on Wednesday and had taken the possessions she needed.
The Sudanese “have said they will keep them (the family) safe and we are absolutely going to make sure they do”, spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
In a statement issued on its Facebook page, Sudan’s security service said earlier this week that passport police had “arrested” Mr Ibrahim after she presented “emergency travel documents issued by the South Sudanese embassy and carrying an American visa”.
“The Sudanese authorities considered this a criminal violation”, it said.
Ms Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim but who was raised by her Orthodox Christian mother, was convicted of apostasy for marrying a Christian and refusing to renounce her Christian faith during a four-day grace period.
She was sentenced to death while eight months pregnant and gave birth in prison with her legs chained in February. Her sentence sparked an international outcry and led to campaigns headed by Amnesty International calling for her release.
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[Blog Editor: This Daily Mail posts has numerous photos and videos in which I am omitting. You’ll have to go to the Daily Mail link to see and watch.]
Another cruel twist of the knife: Sudanese mother Meriam Ibrahim faces SEVEN years in jail for trying to flee country hours after death sentence for 'marrying Christian was dropped'
· Meriam Ibrahim and her husband, US citizen Daniel Wani were held as they tried to fly out of the country on Tuesday
· She is charged with travelling on false documents which carries seven-year sentence
· Couple and their children, Martin, 21 months and Maya, one month, were detained by around 40 National Security agents at Khartoum airport
· All now in jail cell together with no sign of release
· Charities supporting her claim U.S. embassy's lack of help for the family has been 'shameful'
· Setback came hours after she was released following international outcry
PUBLISHED: 08:35 EST, 25 June 2014 | UPDATED: 15:26 EST, 25 June 2014
Meriam Ibrahim faces up to seven years in jail over new offences levelled at her by the Sudanese regime, MailOnline can reveal today.
The mother-of-two was told the devastating news after being detained as she tried to fly out of the African country hours after a death sentence against her was dropped.
Dr Ibrahim, 27, was charged with obtaining a false travel document and giving false information to immigration officials - and banned from leaving Sudan.
The move is another twist of the knife as Dr Ibrahim tries to get to America with her two children where she can live with her husband Daniel Wani, a US citizen, from Manchester, New Hampshire.
Instead she is back in a cell with her son Martin, 21, and daughter Maya, one month.
Mr Wani is also locked up with them at the Al Sheradee police station in Khartoum after being confronted at Khartoum airport by 40 agents of the feared National Intelligence and Security Services.
It is believed they were trying to travel to Washington DC and Sudanes media have claimed that the US vice consul was with the family at the airport.
Mr Wani told AFP: 'We are worried. That’s why we want to get out of here as soon as possible.'
Dr Ibrahim’s lawyer Shareif Ali Shareif told MailOnline: 'The authorities do not have the right to hold her. They appear not to want to let her leave Sudan. They are restricting her movements.
'Her husband Daniel and the children are with her in the same cell. Any reports suggesting she has been released are wrong. We need to highlight her plight.’
A diplomatic row has now erupted and the Sudanese Foreign Ministry has summoned the American and South Sudanese ambassadors to explain themselves.
Dr Ibrahim had been granted emergency travel documents by the government of South Sudan to travel there and then on to the US.
Mr Shareif insisted that the documents were legitimate and that it was ‘not right’ to claim otherwise.
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) launched a blistering attack on the government of Sudan on the floor Capitol Hill today in which he said it had ‘forcibly captured’ Dr Ibrahim.
Standing in front of a picture of Dr Ibrahim and her husband, he said: ‘We need to speak even louder, we need to speak out for Meriam Ibrahim because it is wrong, especially for this young mother, to be subject to torture and murder for being a Christian.
‘That is unequivocally wrong and we need to speak in one voice.’
Earlier in an interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a Christian right think tank, Cruz called on President Obama to do more.
He said: ‘We don’t know what their status is, we don’t know if the Sudanese government is going to reimpose the horrific sentence. It’s a powerful reminder - every one of us cherishes our religious liberty and I bet you to say that virtually none of us have had their faith tested as Meriam has had her faith tested.
‘It underscores the need for all of us to lift her up in prayer and it also underscores the need for US leadership.
‘What I have been begging for is for President Obama to stand up and lead...the President needs to say to the government of Sudan: ‘Free Meriam now’’.
Cruz added: ‘Sharia law that would torture and murder a young mother for protesting her religious faith is barbaric, it is wrong and it should be condemned’.
Dr Ibrahim was released from the grim Omdurman Women’s Prison on Monday after nine months in custody during which time she was sentenced to death and 100 lashes for apostasy and adultery and gave birth to Maya in her call whilst shackled to the floor.
A judge had ruled that she had broken strict Islamic law by failing to renounce her Christian faith and become a Muslim.
On Monday an appeal court overturned her conviction after an international outcry but on Tuesday she and her family were detained again.
What happens next is unclear - Dr Ibrahim has yet to be granted asylum by the US - but so long as she remains in Sudan her life is in danger.
A man claiming to be Dr Ibrahim’s half brother went to the prison in Khartoum the night she was released and, upon discovering she had been freed, flew into a rage and vowed to kill her.
According to CNN, al-Samani al-Hadi, said: ‘The family is unconvinced by the court’s decision.
‘We were not informed by the court that she was to be released; this came as a surprise to us. The law has failed to uphold our rights. This is now an issue of honour. The Christians have tarnished our honour, and we will know how to avenge it.’
Speaking to Sudanese paper, al-Samani al-Hadi, said that Meriam had been 'kidnapped' from the family who she should have been returned to, not her husband.
'They did not let us know that she was about to be freed. It was a surprise for us,' he said.
Dr Ibrahim was detained on Tuesday at the airport by the feared National Intelligence and Security Services, who were dubbed ‘Agents of Fear’ in a damning report by human rights group Amnesty.
A post on the NISS Facebook page said that its agents stopped Dr Ibrahim because her temporary travel documents had a US visa stamp on them.
The statement said: ‘This was viewed by Sudanese authorities as a criminal violation and a disregard upon which the foreign ministry summoned the US and South Sudanese envoys’.
The statement added that the document was only supposed to be used for somebody travelling to their homeland and as Dr Ibrahim would be using it to fly to America it was invalid.
In an interview with MailOnline Tina Ramirez, founder of religious freedom organization Hardwired, which has campaigned for Dr Ibrahim to be freed, has said that the US embassy in Sudan should have foreseen these kind of problems.
She said that the State Department had been aware of her plight since 2011 when she married her husband and that the handling of her case had been ‘incredibly negligent’.
Ms Ramirez said: ‘The US government should have coordinated with the government of Sudan to get them out of the country. This is sloppy.
‘I think that Congress should be investigating what happened here.
‘The US says that it cares about human rights issues and this is something they should be caring about. It’s a total failure, it’s shameful.’
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in her Tuesday briefing that the Sudanese government had assured it of the safety of Dr Ibrahim and her family.
She said the department was talking to Sudanese officials to ‘secure their safe and swift departure from Sudan’.
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News on Meriam Ibrahim’s 2nd Release
Edited by John R. Houk
© June 26, 2014
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Meriam Ibrahim: Sudanese apostasy woman released after being arrested …
© independent.co.uk
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Another cruel twist of the knife: Sudanese mother Meriam Ibrahim faces SEVEN years …
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group
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