Meriam Ibrahim’s husband ‘not informed’ of her release

Meriam Ibrahim’s husband has not been informed of his wife’s release, the BBC has reported.

Meriam, a Sudanese woman, was sentenced to death for abandoning the Islamic faith. Last Wednesday, the woman gave birth to her second child, a daughter, in her prison cell.

Abdullahi Alzareg, an under-secretary at the Sudan foreign ministry, said on Saturday that Meriam, 27, would be freed because Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting her.

Meriam Ibrahim was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, but a judge ruled last month that she should be regarded as Muslim because that had been her father's faith.

She refused to renounce her Christianity and was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy.

Daniel Wani, the woman’s husband, told the BBC that no one had contacted him about his wife’s release.

He said he had only heard media reports, which he described as rumours.

"No Sudanese or foreign mediator contacted me. Maybe there are contacts between the Sudanese government and foreign sides that I'm not aware of,” Wani told Mohammad Osman, the BBC's correspondent in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

"As far as I'm concerned I will wait for the appeal which my lawyer submitted and I hope that my wife will be released."

The court had originally said that Ibrahim would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the sentence was carried out.

The court also annulled her Christian marriage and sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because the union was not considered valid under Islamic law.