After conflicting reports about her status, Meriam Ibrahim and her family are out of police custody in Sudan and they are currently in the US Embassy in Khartoum.  Ibrahim’s Sharia law death sentence for marrying a Christian was overturned, but the family was arrested at the airport as they tried to leave the country.

“I would like to thank the Sudanese people and the Sudanese police,” Meriam told western reporters as she left the police station.  “I would like to thank those who stood beside me.”

It’s believed that Meriam, her husband Daniel Wani, and their two kids are trying to get to America to settle in New Hampshire in the Northeast.  But one of the conditions of her release was that she stay in Sudan, at least for the time being.

“Meriam was released after a guarantor was found, but, of course, she would not be able to leave the country,” said Muhannad Mustafa from Meriam’s legal team. 

The dispute seems to be about which country gets to issue her travel documents.  Daniel Wani is an American citizen originally from what is now South Sudan, so the South Sudanese Embassy was pressed upon to issue a visa.  Sudan considers these false documents.

All in all, it’s been an awful nine months for the 27-year-old doctor.  An Islamic court sentenced her to death by hanging and 100 lashes because she married a Christian, even though Meriam had never been a practicing Muslim – it was her absentee father whom she had never met who was a Muslim.  Meriam was raised an Orthodox Christian. 

After intense international pressure and being forced to give birth to her infant daughter while chained to a prison floor, the Sudanese Court of Cassation overturned the idiotic death sentence and freed her.  But a man claiming to be her brother alerted authorities she was attempting to leave the country, and they were stopped in the Khartoum Airport and arrested.  More international pressure, and that gets us to the latest developments.