Nigerian couple to get stoned to death for affair

LAGOS, Nigeria -- An Islamic court has sentenced a couple to death by stoning for having an affair, marking the first time in Nigeria that a man has been sentenced to death for adultery, media reported Thursday.

The sentence came a week after an Islamic court rejected single mother Amina Lawal's appeal of a stoning sentence for having sex outside of marriage.

Lawal's case provoked an international outcry, with governments and human rights groups around the world urging President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration to intercede on her behalf.

The couple, Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman, both 30, were sentenced to death Monday by a court in the central town of New Gawu.

Usman had become pregnant with Ibrahim's child while she was married to another man, the radio and television reports said.

Ibrahim and Usman had originally been sentenced to five years in prison in May after pleading guilty to adultery but protested to a higher court that the sentence was too harsh.

Their appeal backfired Monday when the court ruled instead that their sentence was too lenient, the reports said. The state's Shariah laws prescribe death as punishment for adultery.

The two were not present at their sentencing because they were not allowed to leave jail, the reports said.

Ibrahim is the first man to be sentenced to death for adultery in Nigeria. Previously only women were prosecuted and their children used as evidence while men got off because of a lack of proof.

Meanwhile, a man who allegedly confessed to raping a nine-year-old girl in northern Jigawa state may only be days from stoning, government officials said Thursday.

The Jigawa government said 50-year-old Ado Baranda could be executed at "anytime" now that his time for him to appeal has expired.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch expressed concern Thursday that the trial where Baranda allegedly confessed to rape may not have been fair.

"The reason for his decision not to appeal has not been confirmed, but on the basis of past experience, we are concerned the trial may not have been fair," said Peter Takirambudde, the group's Africa director.

Execution soon

The government has not said when Baranda will be executed only that it will be soon.

"In Shariah law we do not waste time," government spokesman Usman Zakari Dutse said. "That is the best way to get justice."

Nigeria is deeply divided about the application of Islamic law, or Shariah, which calls for cutting off a hand to punish theft and death for adultery.

Decisions by a dozen states in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north to adopt the strict Islamic code since 1999 sparked clashes with the region's Christian minority that have killed hundreds.