Christian Seeks Asylum in Italy to Avoid Stoning

Will the UN actually do something useful and save a man's life?

"Italy: Nigerian Christian facing stoning prays he can stay" from AKI:

Turin, 24 August (AKI) - A young Nigerian Christian man, Felix Eugenne is anxiously awaiting a decision on 3 September from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on whether he can remain in Italy. He is facing deportation to Nigeria and death by stoning for having sex outside wedlock with a Muslim woman.

Magistrates in Nigeria sentenced Eugenne, 27, to death by stoning preceded by public flogging. His crime was to have had sex with his girlfriend Fatimah, who is a Muslim: a double offence in Niger state, where Islamic law is in force.

Eugenne's family property was torched by his girlfriend's relatives when they found out Fatimah was pregnant, and Eugenne and his father were thrown into jail.

Eugenne was imprisoned and given 21 public lashes for several days. He had been sentenced to 21 public lashes for 21 days before death by stoning, but says he managed to escape when his mullah-jailer left his cell unlocked one day.

The mullah had his throat slit in a public square as an "exemplary" punishment, Eugenne said. He managed to flee Nigeria and reach Italy aboard a container ship in April 1994.

Islam…a religion for the entire family.