Meriam Ibrahim—the Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for “converting” to Christianity before being freed Monday—was detained at an airport in the country’s capital of Khartoum while trying to leave the country, according to reports. From CNN:
Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services said that she had South Sudanese travel documents, despite not being a citizen of South Sudan, and she was heading to the United States, which is not her native country.
“This was considered illegal by the Sudanese authorities, who have summoned both the U.S. and South Sudanese ambassadors,” the agency said in a message posted on its media Facebook page early Wednesday.
A U.S. state department official told reporters that the American embassy “has been and will remain highly involved in working with the family and the government” to “secure their safe and swift departure from Sudan.”
Ibrahim, by her account, was raised by a Christian mother after her Muslim father left their family. But authorities ruled that she was Muslim because children must take their father’s religion; her decision to marry a Christian man was thus considered apostasy subject to the death penalty. Ibrahim gave birth to the couple’s second child while in prison.
