An Islamic court in northern Nigeria has ruled that a young woman must face death by stoning according to Muslim law for having a child outside marriage.
The decision, upholding a verdict by a lower court, looks set to re-ignite international outrage against Nigeria and could stoke sectarian tensions in the country's largely Muslim north.
"If one can be sentenced to death for fornication then it makes nonsense of our democracy," said Mr Innocent Chukwuma of the Centre for Law Enforcement Education, a Lagos-based legal rights pressure group.
"The majority of Nigerians should be sentenced to death by such a ruling."
The judge said the stoning would not be carried out until Ms Amina Lawal Kurami, 31, had weaned her eight-month-old daughter Wasila, which may not be for another two years.
Holding the baby in her arms, Ms Kurami remained calm as the verdict was announced and was quickly whisked away by her lawyers who said they would appeal against the decision.
Ms Kurami was sentenced to death in March by a lower court in her state of Katsina, which like a number of others in northern Nigeria has adopted Islamic sharia law.
Ms Kurami is the second woman to be sentenced to death for bearing a child outside marriage since 2000, when the first of about a dozen states adopted the strict sharia code.
The introduction of sharia law has been controversial in the north of Nigeria, where more than 3,000 people have died in Muslim-Christian clashes in the past three years.
Ms Kurami said she had left her fate in God's hands.
"God is in control. I believe he will vindicate me," Ms Kurami told Reuters, before she was driven to court for the judgment.