A human rights organization re-released a video today of a Sudanese woman being flogged in order to draw further attention to the case of Meriam Ibrahim – sentenced to 100 lashes and death for apostasy.
The disturbing footage was originally made public in December 2010, and shows a woman being mercilessly whipped by police in a public square in July 2009. London human rights group REDRESS said that the video needed to be recirculated to show punishment Ibrahim was sentenced to.
"This may well be the fate that awaits Meriam unless her appeal is successful," REDRESS counsel Lutz Oette told the Daily Mail.
"The video shows how flogging violates the dignity of its victims who are more often than not women. REDRESS calls for an end to this practice, which is cruel, inhuman and degrading."
Sudan's Judiciary Authority said in a 2010 statement that the woman in the video was convicted under Articles 154 and 155 of their penal code for prostitution and running a brothel. She is whipped dozens of times on the front and back of her body as she begs for mercy and for her mother. Policeman are shown laughing on camera, and tell her, "Sit down quickly, we want to go."
Ibrahim, whose case is in appeals court, has been in a Sudanese prison since January for marrying a Christian man, Daniel Wani.
Although she was raised by an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, Ibrahim is considered Muslim because this was the faith of her estranged father. Her 20-month-old son and two-week-old daughter are in prison with her.
Shortly after his daughter's birth, Wani confirmed that Ibrahim was willing to die for her Christian faith.
"I know my wife. She's committed," Wani told CNN. "Even last week, they brought in sheikhs and she told them, 'I'm pretty sure I'm not going to change my mind.'"
Ibrahim is expected to be hanged when her daughter is two years old if her appeal fails.
