Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon today appealed to the Nigerian ambassador to Ireland to help save a young mother who faces death by stoning.
Ms Scallon, MEP for Connacht and Ulster, handed in a letter appealing for help in the case of Mrs Amina Lawal Kurami, sentenced for having a child out of wedlock after her divorce.
The former singer has asked more that 7,000 people to write to the Nigerian Ambassador in their countries saying that everything possible must be done to help save the Nigerian woman's life.
"We already spoke to the ambassador to ask him to make an appeal for mercy in the case of another woman," she said this morning. This was effective and the woman had her sentence quashed.
"It proves this can be done, but we just need all the support we can get," she said.
Mrs Kurami (30) was sentenced on March 22nd, 2002, to death by stoning after she was found guilty of adultery under Nigeria's interpretation of the Sharia Law.
The death sentence was postponed until she had weaned her baby, which is now eight months old.
The Islamic Supreme Court of Appeal is to give its decision on the appeal by March 25th.
Ms Scallon said the European Commission office in Nigeria confirmed that an appeal from the international community could make a real difference to the outcome of the case.
She stressed that the sentence was not imposed by the Nigerian government but by the Islamic regime in the state of Katsina.
PA