Daniel Wani, the husband of the Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for apostasy, has spoken for the first time of his delight at seeing his baby daughter – and his anger at the authorities’ insistence on keeping Meriam Ibrahim in chains.
Mr Wani, 27, told The Telegraph that his wife gave birth on Tuesday with her legs shackled.
“They kept a chain on her legs,” he said. “She is very unhappy about that.”
Immediately after the birth, Mr Wani was refused permission to see his wife. But finally, on Wednesday, the authorities relented and let him and his lawyer enter the jail, and removed the chains from Ms Ibrahim’s legs.
“It was very wonderful to see my baby daughter – I am so happy,” he said.
“The baby is very beautiful.”
Ms Ibrahim named their daughter Maya – when asked why, Mr Wani said: “Her mother chose the name.”
He added: “She is OK. She does not look too bad.”
Ms Ibrahim was sentenced to death earlier this month for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Despite being heavily pregnant, she was been kept shackled in her cell in a Khartoum prison, and was not allowed to leave the prison to give birth in a hospital.
When will he next see his newborn daughter?
“I will try tomorrow,” he said. “But they probably won’t let me in as I can only go twice a week. They make it very hard for you.”
The 27-year-old has been in prison since February, when she was charged with apostasy – or the abandoning of Islam. She told the court that she had been raised a Christian and was never a Muslim in the first place, because her Muslim father left the family when she was a child.
It has been reported that Ms Ibrahim was taken to the authorities by her own brother – but Mr Wani said: “I don’t know, and I don’t want to comment on that.”
He explained how they first met through his sister. Mr Wani, a biochemist, has muscular dystrophy, which confines him to a wheelchair. He has US citizenship and lives for part of the year in New Hampshire, but the couple were married in 2011 and had a son, Martin, who is now aged 20 months.
Martin is also in prison with his mother.
“Martin is fine actually,” said Mr Wani. “I don’t think he really knows what is going on but he is happy. A woman is helping take care of him.”
Mr Wani added: “When the court sentenced Meriam to death, they also sentenced us both for adultery because they did not recognise our Christian wedding.
“They say my children are not mine, because our marriage is not valid. It doesn’t make sense.”
Mr Wani and his lawyers have appealed against both their convictions, and are waiting to hear the outcome. If that appeal fails, they will take the case to Sudan’s High Court.
The judge ruled that Ms Ibrahim would not be executed for two years after the birth of the baby – but they are desperately hoping that the verdict can be overruled before long.
“She is not going to renounce her religion, though,” he said. “She told me that.”
And Mr Wani said that they told her that the world is talking about her plight.
“We let her know,” he said. “She really appreciates that and is thanking people. She wants people to support her and pressure the government to reverse the sentence.
He added: “I really hope they do.”
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