UNCLEAR IF SUDANESE APOSTATE MOTHER WILL BE FREED

The Vancouver Sun reported that the mother who converted to Christianity may be freed, but it hasn't happened yet:

Sudan appeared to be bowing to international pressure to free a woman sentenced to death for apostasy. A foreign ministry spokesman said that Meriam Ibrahim would be released and not face further charges.

But lawyers for 27-year-old Ibrahim expressed skepticism that she would be freed so quickly.

“It’s a statement to silence the international media,” said Al-Shareef Ali al-Shareef Mohammed. “This is what the government does. We will not believe that she is being freed until she walks out of the prison. … But at least it shows our campaign to free Meriam is rattling them. We must keep up the pressure.”

The government in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, has come under increasing pressure to free Ibrahim since she was sentenced on May 15 to hang for refusing to recant her Christianity. In Sudan, abandoning Islam is a crime punishable by death.

The lawyer is right. An announcement alone will not convince, only an actual release from prison will. And opponents of the death sentence in Sudan also have to demand they abandon all such practices too.