A U.S. citizen, who rushed to his native Sudan to save his pregnant wife from the death sentence, described his horror at seeing her shackled in a prison cell with their toddler son. Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, was charged with adultery for marrying Christian Daniel Wani, a Sudanese man with U.S. citizenship who lives in New Hampshire. She was sentenced to 100 lashes as the Sudanese court refuses to recognize her 2011 marriage to Mr Wani because they consider Ishag a Muslim. The eight-months pregnant woman, who has a 20-month-old son, was subsequently sentenced to death for the crime of apostasy. Sudanese law considers her a Muslim while she has declared that she was raised Christian and refuses to convert to Islam because Christianity is the only religion she knows.
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Mariam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, was sentenced to death last week for refusing to renounce her Christian faith in front of Sudanese court which considers her a Muslim
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She was also charged with adultery for marrying Christian Daniel Wani and sentenced to 100 lashes
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She told the Sudanese court: 'I was never a Muslim. I was raised a Christian from the start'
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Ishag is considered a Muslim by the court because her father was a Sudanese Muslim despite her being raised by a Christian mother
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She has been shackled at the legs in prison where she is being held with the couple's 20-month-old son Martin
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The couple's lawyer is working on an appeal to the 27-year-old's sentence amid mounting international pressure
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Mr Wani was born in war-torn Sudan but fled to the U.S. in 1998. He settled in Manchester, New Hampshire
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Daniel Wani says his son Martin is a U.S. citizen, but State Department would not confirm the boy's legal status
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The husband was allegedly asked to send a DNA sample to U.S. Embassy in Khartoum to prove Martin is his son
The family own homes in @placeholder and in Khartoum, Sudan, since the husband and wife operate several businesses in both countries.
Last summer, Mr Wani traveled back to @placeholder to arrange for his wife and son to emigrate to the U.S., but the American Embassy was allegedly dragging its feet.
Therefore, her marriage to a @placeholder is classed as a criminal act.
Muslim women in Sudan are banned from marrying non-Muslims but @placeholder men can marry a woman of a different faith.