Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP yesterday hand-delivered a letter to the Nigerian Embassy in Dublin appealing for mercy for a Nigerian woman facing death by stoning for adultery.
Ms Scallon asked the ambassador, Mr Elias Nathan, to appeal for mercy to the competent authorities in Nigeria to save the life of Mrs Amina Lawal Kurami (31), whose appeal outcome is due to be announced next month.
Ms Scallon has also launched an email campaign to raise awareness of the plight of Mrs Kurami, who was sentenced to death by stoning last summer after an Islamic sharia law court found she had a child out of wedlock.
Mrs Kurami, a divorcee from Katsina state in northern Nigeria, was given a two-year stay on her sentence for adultery to allow her to wean her infant daughter, Wasila.
The woman has appealed her conviction to the Islamic Supreme Court, and Ms Scallon said she has received confirmation from the European Commission office in Nigeria that the court will announce its decision on March 25th.
The Connacht-Ulster MEP said she has received many responses to her clemency appeal from people in almost every country in Europe who have contacted their respective Nigerian embassies.
Sharia Islamic law was reintroduced in 2000 in 12 states of northern Nigeria, where Islam is the dominant religion, despite opposition from the Nigerian federal government.
According to sharia law, a woman married for the first time, even if she is divorced, commits adultery if she has sexual relations without having remarried. The sale and consumption of alcohol are also strictly forbidden, while theft is severely punished.