September 26, 2003	Friday	Rajab 28, 1424

KATSINA (Nigeria), Sept 25: Nigerian woman Amina Lawal was spared from a sentence of death by stoning on Thursday when a court overturned her conviction for adultery in a case that has caused an international outcry.

Lawal’s supporters hailed the majority ruling, which split a panel of Katsina State’s top Islamic lawyers four to one, as a vital step forward in ensuring the legal rights of Nigeria’s more than 60 million Muslims.

Lawal, a 31-year-old village housewife, was last year convicted of adultery under the strict Shariat legal code, and faced becoming the first person to be stoned to death since its controversial reintroduction in Nigeria, mainly in the northern, predominantly Muslim states.

She appeared before Katsina Shariat Appeal Court in a peach-coloured embroidered veil, cradling Wasila, who has grown a thick head of curls since making her first public appearance at her mother’s trial in March last year, when she was only a few months old.—AFP