Released Sudanese Christian Woman Faces 2 New Charges Even As Her Brother Says She Should Repent Or Die

A Sudanese Christian woman who was sentenced to die for refusing to renounce her faith and then released, has been charged on two criminal counts after trying to leave the African country for the United States, her legal team said on Wednesday.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who was detained with her American husband, Daniel Wani and their two children at an airport in Khartoum on Tuesday, is accused of traveling with falsified documents and giving false information, according to her legal team.

The family is currently being held in a Khartoum police station and has been refused bail.

Ibrahim’s legal team told CNN that Daniel Wani is being held as an accessory.

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

Ibrahim has a United States visa and was headed to the United States with her family, her legal team said.

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

“They have not been arrested. The government has assured us of their safety,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf said then.

Harf said that the U.S. Embassy “has been and will remain highly involved in working with the family and the government,” saying “we are engaging directly with Sudanese officials to secure their safe and swift departure from Sudan.”

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 on Wednesday.

However, one of her three brothers, Al-Samani al-Hadi, in an interview with CNN, said: “Her name isn’t Mariam, her name is Abrar al-Hadi. I am al-Samani al-Hadi Mohamed Abdullah, her full older brother.

“It’s one of two; if she repents and returns to our Islamic faith and embrace our family, then we are her family and she is ours. We are prepared to hold her dearer than the apples of our eyes. But if she refuses she should be executed.”