Sudan seems determine to do all it can to mess with Meriam Ibrahim, the 27-year old woman who was condemned to death for religious apostasy only to have that sentence overturned by an appeals court.  Authorities have now filed seven charges against her and her family related to their attempt to leave the country for the US.  She faces seven years in prison.

Ibrahim, her US Citizen husband Daniel, and their two children – one of whom was born in jail – were detained at the airport in Khartoum when they tried to depart the country with American and South Sudanese visas.  Sudan’s Foreign Ministry claimed a violation of law, and banned her from leaving Sudan.  The US State Department yesterday had claimed that it is still working with Sudan to allow the family to travel to the US.

“The authorities do not have the right to hold her.  They appear not to want to let her leave Sudan.  They are restricting her movements,” said Ibrahim’s lawyer Shareif Ali Shareif.  “Her husband Daniel and the children are with her in the same cell.  Any reports suggesting she has been released are wrong.  We need to highlight her plight.”

A day earlier, the Court of Cassation had overturned the death sentence declared by an Islamic Sharia Law court, which decided Meriam was a religious apostate who turned her back on Islam.  The truth was that Meriam’s absentee father was a Muslim, but she never met the man and was raised as a Christian.