Miriam Ibrahim was rearrested Tuesday while at a Sudanese airport with her husband and two children. CNN reports that the family was about to leave the country when officials detained and interrogated them at the security headquarters in Sudan's capital. Her husband, Daniel Wani, and their two children are American citizens.
Miriam Ibrahim was sentenced to death in the Islamic nation on charges of apostasy and adultery for becoming a Christian and for marrying a Christian man. Because her father was a Muslim, Ibrahim was considered a Muslim in the eyes of the Sudanese government. Although she became a Christian at a young age, Ibrahim's relatives were disconcerted when she married a Christian man. They reported her to the authorities, who charged her with apostasy for abandoning the Islamic religion and with adultery for marrying Wani, who is not a Muslim.
Ibrahim was given until May 15 to renounce her Christian faith, but she refused - "I am a Christian ... and I will remain a Christian," she said during her trial. Pregnant with her second child on the way, Ibrahim was afterward sentenced to 100 lashings and to death. After an international outcry over her plight, the Sudanese government had agreed to release Ibrahim Monday.
Although it is unclear why Ibrahim's family was arrested at the airport Tuesday, a man who claims to be Ibrahim's brother is outraged that the Sudanese government had decided to let her go free. "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 ... This is now an issue of honor. The Christians have tarnished our honor, and we will know how to avenge it," he says.
