Photos: Finally free! Sudanese woman spared death sentence for apostasy arrives in Italy.

Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian mother put on death row for refusing to reject Christianity has now arrived Italy, ending an almost year-long ordeal that triggered outrage around the world.

The State Department has been negotiating with Sudanese officials to secure the family's safe passage out of the country. She, her American husband and two young children, eventually fled   Sudan on Thursday and arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport accompanied by Italy’s vice minister of foreign affairs, officials told NBC News.They had been sheltered at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum for almost a month.

Ibrahim was heavily pregnant when she was jailed in Febuary after a member of the Muslim side of her family told authorities she had recently converted from Islam to marry her Christian husband. She was sentenced to death and 100 lashes after she refused to renounce Christianity when given the opportunity in court. She was forced to take her 20-month-old son into her cell and gave birth to her second child, Maya, while her legs were in shackles.