Sudanese Woman Freed From Death Row, Re-arrested At The Airport With Family Members

A Sudanese woman freed from death row on Monday has been detained with her family at Khartoum airport, sources have told the BBC.

Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced in May to hang for renouncing Islam, sparking widespread outrage at home and abroad.

About 40 security agents detained Mrs Ibrahim – along with her husband, Daniel Wani and two children – at the airport, the sources said.

A top Sudanese official has told the BBC she would be freed “soon”.

Abdullahi Alzareg from the ministry of foreign affairs told the BBC’s Newshour programme that Mrs Ibrahim had been arrested because she did not have the correct travel documents.

Although she is Sudanese, she was using emergency South Sudanese papers with a US visa, he said.

She would be asked to get a passport and exit visa on her release, he added.

Mrs Ibrahim’s husband is a Christian from what is now South Sudan and has US nationality.

She was arrested in February, and gave birth to a daughter in prison not long after being sentenced.

The family has been taken to the headquarters of one of Sudan’s security agencies, the sources said.

Before she was detained on Tuesday, Western countries had welcomed the decision to rescind the death penalty.

One of Mrs Ibrahim’s lawyers, el-Shareef Ali, told the BBC that her legal team is being denied access to her.

She was released from prison on Monday after an appeal court annulled the death sentence imposed on her.