KHARTOUM — A Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy has given birth in jail, a Western diplomat said on Tuesday, May 27.

“She gave birth to a girl today,” said the diplomat, who is familiar with the case of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 27. “The mother and the baby seem to be doing OK. It’s a cruel treatment to be in such a situation.”

The case of Ishag has sparked global outrage since a Khartoum-area court sentenced her to death on May 15.

Born to a Muslim father, she was convicted, under the Islamic Sharia Law, for converting to Christianity after marrying a Christian man. Sharia Law has been enforced in Sudan since 1983.

“To give birth in jail… is certainly not the best place, for physical and psychological reasons,” the diplomat said.

Human rights activists have said Ishag is being held at a women’s prison in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman with her first child, a 20-month-old son.

“We gave you three days to recant, but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa said as he sentenced Ishag, addressing her by her father’s Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.

Khalifa also sentenced her to 100 lashes for “adultery.” Under Sudan’s interpretation of Sharia, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man and any such relationship is regarded as adulterous.

“I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy,” Ishag calmly told the judge before he passed sentence.

“For the image of Sudan, it’s certainly no good,” the diplomat said of the case.