sudan christian woman Ibrahim with family
Sudanese Christian woman rearrested
02:10 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

Mariam Yehya Ibrahim and her husband say they were freed on bail

They tell CNN they are prohibited from leaving the country

The couple and their two children were planning to travel to the United States

Ibrahim had been sentenced to death for apostasy, then released on appeal

CNN  — 

A Sudanese Christian woman who had been sentenced to die for refusing to renounce her faith and her husband were released from custody late Thursday, the two told CNN.

Mariam Yehya Ibrahim and her husband, Daniel Wani, said that they were freed on bail but are prohibited from leaving the country.

The pair had been detained after they arrived at an airport in Khartoum with their children on Tuesday. She is accused of two criminal counts, traveling with falsified documents and giving false information, according to Ibrahim’s legal team.

Ibrahim was trying to leave the African country for the United States with her family, her legal team said Wednesday. Daniel Wani was being held as an accessory, the lawyers said.

The family was stopped at the airport after what Ibrahim’s lawyers described Tuesday as an alleged “irregularity with her documentation.”

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that Ibrahim and her family had been “temporarily detained at the airport” for questioning over issues relating to their travel and documentation.

“She and her family are in a safe location, and the Government of Sudan has assured us of the family’s continued safety,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Thursday, confirming that Ibrahim had been released on bail.

Harf said that the U.S. Embassy “remains highly engaged” in the woman’s case, saying “we will provide more information as it becomes available consistent with privacy laws.”

Sudanese authorities said Ibrahim had been detained because of the documents she submitted.

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services said that she had South Sudanese travel documents despite not being a citizen of South Sudan, and she was heading to the United States, which is not her native country.

“This was considered illegal by the Sudanese authorities, who have summoned both the U.S. and South Sudanese ambassadors,” the agency said in a message posted on its media Facebook page early Wednesday.

The airport detention came a day after Ibrahim’s legal team announced the 27-year-old woman had been released from prison after weeks of international controversy over her conviction on apostasy and adultery charges.

According to her lawyer, the case began when one of Ibrahim’s relatives, a Muslim, filed a criminal complaint saying her family was shocked to find out she had married Wani, a Christian, after she was missing for several years.

The Sudanese court considered Ibrahim a Muslim because her father was Muslim, but she said she was a Christian and never practiced Islam. She was charged with adultery, because a Muslim woman’s marriage to a Christian man is illegal in Sudan, and with apostasy, accused of illegally renouncing what was alleged to be her original faith.

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Journalist Muhammad Osman contributed to this report.