Bail hearing for couple adjourned

A bail application hearing for a couple sentenced to death by stoning in Nigeria's northern Niger State was adjourned on Tuesday to 22 October. The couple was originally sentenced to a five-year jail term for adultery but the judge at an appeal hearing imposed the death sentence, saying the earlier court had used the wrong penal code to try the case, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. The death sentence was handed down by an appeal court operating under the Islamic or Shari'ah legal code. Nigerian news organisations said the couple's lawyers had hoped to get Fatima Usman and her alleged lover, Ahmadu Ibrahim, released, pending an appeal against the death sentence. Neither the man nor the woman was brought for the hearing from the jail in Niger State in which they are being held, nor were they aware of the punishment they are facing, according to the BBC. Usman has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter out of wedlock, who is allegedly fathered by the man, Ibrahim. Usman's lawyers said she was not only unwell but was now eight months pregnant, this time by her former husband, from whom she is now divorced, the BBC reported. At least five people, including three men and two women, are facing sentences of death by stoning in northern Nigeria, where a dozen states have adopted the strict Shari'ah legal code since late 1999. The only death sentence carried out under Shari'ah law so far was the hanging in Katsina State in January of a man, Sani Rodi, who was convicted of killing a woman and her two children. The Nigerian government has described the strict application of Shari'ah as unconstitutional and discriminatory against Muslims, and urged reform of the law in the 12 states that have adopted the code. The states have so far refused to do so. The application of Shari'ah law has heightened religious and ethnic tension in Nigeria, which has just about equal numbers of Muslims and Christians. Thousands of people have died in religious and ethnic violence associated with the adoption of Shari'ah in different parts of Nigeria over the past two years.