Girl’s Flogging Put on Hold Indefinitely

Under increasing international pressure, an Islamic court has reduced and indefinitely postponed the flogging of a 17-year-old Muslim girl who says she was pressured by her father to have sex with three men, officials said. The girl, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, was sentenced to 180 lashes with a cane in September by an Islamic court in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara. Last week, the court reduced the penalty to 100 lashes for having premarital sex and indefinitely postponed the sentence. Court officials said the judge wanted to give human rights groups time to appeal.