ROME: A Sudanese Christian woman who was sentenced to death for renouncing Islam, then acquitted after intense international pressure, arrived on Thursday in Italy with her family en route to the United States.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was received in Rome by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife as well as Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini.

Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Lapo Pistelli, who accompanied the family on the flight to Rome, tweeted a photo of the young mother aboard the plane cradling her infant daughter as her toddler son drank from a bottle. Pistelli said Pope Francis had been informed of Ishag’s arrival, and that a meeting between the pontiff and the Sudanese woman was possible.

A global outcry erupted in May after Ishag was sentenced to hang for apostasy. Days after her conviction, the 26-year-old gave birth to a second child in prison.

Ishag’s conviction was overturned in June, but she was immediately rearrested while trying to leave Sudan using what prosecutors claimed were forged documents.

Two days later, Ishag was released from prison and she and her family — including her American husband Daniel Wani and the two infant children — took refuge in the US Embassy.

Ishag was born to a Muslim father who abandoned the family, and was raised by her Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum says Ishaq joined the Catholic church shortly before she married in 2011.