Regardless of that, Ebbie, the child was born only a few weeks after Sharia law was introduced in northern Nigeria, and on that basis the court accepted that conception must have been before the law came in. But beyond that, the appeal court was highly critical of the lower court (where the whole case was over in eight hours), in particular the fact that the woman had no legal representation. In Saudi Arabia such details would not have raised an eyebrow.

It is correct that another woman has been sentenced to a similar fate, as happens several times a year in Iran. Sharia law also prevails in Saudi Arabia, but we don't hear much about that because Saudi is a country that the USA and UK are desperate to do business with.

Just a brief word about the stoning process, for anyone who may not be familiar with it. Men sentenced to this fate are buried to their waists in sand for the ceremony. Women are buried up to their necks. In Iran there is a vague custom that they are allowed to survive if they manage to get out of the sand, but last year a woman who did escape was shot, to the delight of the crowd, but to the distress of her children who had (as is invariably the rule) been made to watch the whole spectacle. By the time she got out of the sand, both of her eyes had been knocked out anyway.

Stones are delivered to the crowd by truck. Each stone has to be large enough to be capable of causing serious injury on its own, but not so large that any two could cause death.

There are websites where you can view illicit videos of such executions, if your stomach is strong enough, but I haven't got URLs to hand right now.