A/55/280 because of his alleged criticisms of Islam and called for him to be put to death. The former member of Parliament Abdel Moneim Abu Zant is said to have declared that the writer had distorted the divine words of the prophet Joseph in Egypt. He apparently called the writer an apostate, demanded that he should repent or be declared an apostate by the authorities, and that his marriage should then be ended and he should be executed. Kuwait 38. It is reported that, in January 2000, the writer Layla al-Uthman was sentenced to two months in prison for blasphemy on account of her book Le départ (Departure). This work was accused of using lustful language, apparently for images depicting the relationship of one sea wave to another. On 27 March 2000, an appeal court reportedly upheld the charges, but reduced the sentence of imprisonment to a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars. 39. Kuwait replied that Layla al-Uthman had been tried for breaking the country’s laws and, specifically, for offending public decency because of the expressions used in her work Le départ. It was emphasized that this was not a case of religious intolerance. It was confirmed that, on 22 January 2000, the writer had been sentenced to two months in prison and that, on 26 March 2000, the sentence had been reduced on appeal to 1,000 dinars. The charges were offending public decency and the fundamental values of society. Lebanon 40. On 3 January 2000, Sister Antoinette Zaidan, a Maronite, is alleged to have been raped and strangled by Muslim extremists while on her way to her convent. Her body was apparently discovered near the Science Faculty between Hadeth and Kfarchima. That same day, in the village of Kfar Abou in northern Lebanon, a group of Muslim extremists known as “Al-Takfir Wal Higra” reportedly murdered two Christian women, Salma Yazbeck and her pregnant sister-in-law Sarah Yazbeck. These extremists reportedly decapitated Sarah Yazbeck and dismembered her body. It is said that, on 1 January 2000, a bomb attack was carried out in the Christian village of Kolaia. In November 1999, Muslim extremists allegedly set fire to four churches: on 3 November, the Maronite Church of Saint George in Dekuwane was bombed, killing the deacon, Chafiq 10 Rajha; on 14 November, an identical attack was perpetrated against the Orthodox Church of Saint Mikhail in Tripoli; on 16 November, the Church of Haoush Hala in Zahle came under machine-gun fire; and, for several days in November, rockets were fired at the Church of Aishie in southern Lebanon, even though worshippers were inside the building. Nigeria 41. It is reported that, on 21 February 2000, in Kaduna, the Christian community demonstrated against the imposition in this state of the Sharia. Their peaceful demonstration apparently led to clashes between Christians and Muslims. On 22 February, at least 400 people were killed. On 22 May, in Kaduna, renewed inter-religious clashes are said to have broken out, killing at least 100 people. Several churches and mosques were reportedly set alight. On 23 May 2000, for the first time in the state of Kaduna, a priest was killed — Father Clément Ozi Bello appears to have been executed by Muslim fanatics. Uganda 42. On 17 March 2000, the bodies of at least 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God are said to have been discovered by the police in a church near Kanunga. It seems, in this instance, to have been a collective suicide. On 27 March 2000, in Rugazi, the police reportedly discovered the bodies of another 70 members of this movement in the garden of an official of the organization. On 2 April 2000, in Kanunga, Vice-President Specioza Kazibwe announced that at least 1,000 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God had died, while its leaders were apparently still alive. Pakistan 43. On 26 April 2000, in Khanewal, in the central Punjab province, Farrukh Barjees Tahir, a lawyer and district Vice-Chairman of the Pakistani Shiite Muslim Party and his clerk were reportedly assassinated by two unidentified individuals. This attack apparently occurred three years after the assassination in Khanewal of the lawyer’s father, at the time ViceChairman of the aforementioned party. In 1997, two members of a Sunni extremist group were arrested and prosecuted in connection with this case.