Sudanese woman Meriam Ibrahim re-arrested at Khartoum airport while trying to leave the country

Meriam Ibrahim and her husband

A Sudanese woman freed from prison Monday after having her death sentence for apostasy commuted was re-arrested Tuesday along with her husband at Khartoum airport while trying to leave the country, one of her lawyers said.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, 26, was detained along with her husband, US citizen Daniel Wani, and their two young children as they tried to leave the country, lawyer Eman Abdul-Rahim told The Associated Press.

The family is reportedly being held at a security building outside the airport.

A Sudanese court sentenced Ibrahim to hang on May 15 for abandoning the Muslim faith of her father, despite having been raised solely by her Christian mother and identifying herself as a Christian.

Under the version of sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983, conversions are punishable by death. A Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man and any such relationship is regarded as adulterous. The court also ordered her Christian marriage to be annulled and sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery.

"I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy," she told the judge at her sentencing.

Ibrahim's husband, a Christian and a US citizen, has also said that Ibrahim identifies as a Christian and was never Muslim, and therefore could not have abandoned the faith.

Ibrahim gave birth in late May to a baby daughter while incarcerated at the women's prison in the city of Omdurman, where she was kept in shackles.

Her case has sparked an outcry from Western governments and rights groups, with British Prime Minister David Cameron denouncing the "barbaric" court sentence.

Brother 'threatens her life'

After the appeal courts overturned the earlier verdict, Ibrahim immediately went into hiding, fearing for her life because of death threats, one of her lawyers said.

"She is in a safe place. I will not tell you where," Mohanad Mustafa, told AFP on Monday night, adding: "We are concerned about her life."

"Her alleged brother has publicly stated the family would carry out the death sentence should the court acquit her," according to a British-based group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Mustafa said Wani was briefly reunited on Monday with his wife, newborn baby and the couple's 20-month-old son, who had been incarcerated with his mother.

He and other members of Ibrahim's legal team have also received death threats.

Sources: FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP, June 24, 2014

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