I didn’t have much to say about the reports that Christian woman Meriam Ibrahim, the wife of U.S. citizen Daniel Wani and mother of his imprisoned American toddler and infant children, had been released, because I didn’t believe it. I was waiting for her to get the hell out of Dodge before popping the champagne corks. Looks like I was right to be skeptical, as Reuters reports she didn’t get any further than the airport:
Sudanese authorities re-arrested a Sudanese woman on Tuesday hours after she was freed from death row, and detained her and her family as they tried to board a plane in Khartoum, a security source and her lawyer said.
Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, sentenced to death last month for converting to Christianity from Islam, was released on Monday after what the government said was unprecedented international pressure.
The security official said he did know the reason for the re-arrest. One of Ibrahim’s lawyers said she was being held at a security building outside the airport with her husband and two children.
Ibrahim was freed by an appeal court on Monday which cancelled her death sentence. She was then sent to a secret location for her protection after her family reported receiving threats.
Her release was welcomed by human rights groups and Western governments that had voiced outrage at the death sentence.
Now will President Obama pick up his fabled Pen and Phone and do something? Or do we have to watch while Meriam and her kids get dragged back to their dungeon cell? Maybe this will all prove to be a temporary hiccup, and she’ll be on a plane to happier lands by the time you read this. If not, what is anyone in the U.S. government prepared to do about it?
It should also be noted that the Sudanese “courts” didn’t void their barbaric apostasy law… they just found a way to declare that Ibrahim’s conviction was “faulty,” so the human-rights crusaders would get off their backs. Don’t get off their backs. This isn’t over until the civilized world proves it’s serious about religious freedom… indeed, until it makes the case that such freedoms are a non-negotiable pre-requisite for civilization.
Update: The UK Daily Mail reports that it took 40 heroic warriors of Islam to take the demure Meriam Ibrahim and her little children into custody, supposedly on a “national security” issue. The thugs who grabbed her are known as the “Agents of Fear,” they can hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, and they’re not known for making their guests comfortable at their “ghost houses” full of torture equipment. The “minor hiccup” theory is looking less plausible.
Update: The Obama Administration should have intervened strongly on behalf of Daniel Wani’s wife and children, but they don’t even seem all that bent out of shape now that he’s been arrested, and he is unambiguously a U.S. citizen.
@Doc_0 The Mail reports they took the husband too. So they’ve imprisoned an American? Why was a SEAL team not escorting them out of Sudan?
— Darla (@Darla2015) June 24, 2014
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