Letter to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding a young Sudanese mother found guilty of converting to Christianity
Wednesday, May 28 2014
The Most Reverend François Lapierre, P.M.É., Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe and Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada (CCCB), has written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, copied to the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of The Sudan, regarding a young Sudanese mother who was pregnant when sentenced to death. Her crime was converting from Islam to Christianity. The case is now under appeal in Sudan. The mother recently gave birth, a month premature. Both mother and child are in prison. Media reports indicate neither her husband nor lawyer are allowed to see her. Unless her sentence is overturned, she will receive 100 lashes and then be hanged once the child has been weaned. In his letter appealing for mercy, Bishop Lapierre asks “the Government of Canada to do whatever is possible to urge the Sudanese government to release Ms. Ibrahim and to respect the right to freedom of creed and worship….”