NIGERIA: If Amina Lawal was at all tense while waiting for the judges to decide if she will live or die, she hardly showed it as she quietly breast-fed her daughter in this Nigerian court. From Dave Clark, in Funtua, Nigeria
Wasila, eight months old, was exhibit A in the prosecution's case that her mother should be stoned to death for adultery under Islamic Sharia law. Wasila made her debut as legal evidence when she was just 22 days old, so she could be forgiven for feeling relaxed yesterday during her latest day in court.
Even the arrival of a dozen black-clad police clutching tear- gas grenades in both fists did little to sour the atmosphere in the upper Sharia court, where old friends greeted each other and shuffled into place on the concrete floor.
Then the verdict was announced. To cries of approval from many of the men packing the public area and screams of fright from the normally placid Wasila, the weeping mother was swept away from the crowd by supporters.
Amina's case had failed. Wasila was accepted as proof that her mother, a divorcee, had indulged in extra-marital sex. Once Wasila is weaned, the court ordered, her 30-year-old mother is to be taken to a public place, buried up to her neck and stoned to death.
According to Sharia, a woman married for the first time, even if she is divorced, commits adultery if she has sexual relations without having remarried.
Until the moment of the verdict, the idea that the soft-spoken, grey-bearded figures in Funtua's dusty, blue-walled court were discussing the possibility of such a violent end had seemed surreal.
Wasila had played on the laps of press photographers and a shyly smiling Amina had posed with her stepfather for pictures.
When the judge began his summing up, it was clear he was leaning towards the prosecution case and ready to dismiss out of hand the defence's carefully worded procedural quibbles. But proceedings continued with such a polite air that the verdict was still a surprise when it came.
A swelling cry of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) went up and Sgt Abubakar Bazza leant forward from his post with a gas grenade and a table-leg truncheon at the ready, but there was no great disturbance.
Press, lawyers and public poured out into bright African sunshine as Amina was hurried to a waiting car by her lawyer, still clutching a now-distressed Wasila. In a moment she was gone and the crowd's cheerful curiosity turned instead to TV crews and reporters, with their unfamiliar satellite phones and laptops.
"The judgment was right since it was passed in accordance with Islamic law. I'm very happy with it," Sani Musa (27), a Funtua civil servant, said, reflecting what was apparently the majority view. "The judge's proofs were stronger than those of the defence," chimed in Labaran Kabir (25), one of many young men who had taken the morning off to squeeze into the bare courtroom and watch Nigerian Sharia law in action.
Amina's case will be taken to appeal, so it remains to be seen whether these same young men will be ready to pick up the first stone if and when the young mother is led out to face death.
The defence recovered quickly from its disappointment and, having been granted 30 days to appeal, took immediate advantage of the offer and sped off to lodge the necessary papers.
Wasila will have more days in court. Next time she may be more nervous.
Sharia Islamic law was reintroduced in 2000 in 12 states of northern Nigeria where Islam is the dominant religion, despite opposition from Christian believers and the Nigerian federal government. The principle of secularity is enshrined in the constitution of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with 120 million inhabitants.
Islamic law had already applied for centuries in the north, but under British colonial rule and post-colonial regimes, only some of its sanctions were preserved in the penal code.
The north of the country is mainly Muslim and the south predominantly Christian. Under Sharia, the sale and consumption of alcohol are strictly forbidden, adultery and theft are severely punished and schools and public transport are now segregated according to sex.
Christians complain about having to live according to rules laid down by Islam which dominate relations between the two sexes and place application of the law under the jurisdiction of Islamic courts. - (AFP)