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Efforts to save a Sudanese woman from execution by stoning After being convicted of adultery she may face obstacles because there is no minister in the government who can assist
Sudan came under military control after a coup a year ago.
Campaign groups said the 20-year-old had not received a fair trial. and he should be released
A Sudanese government official recognized the trial as a “joke” but said “we don’t have a minister who can ask for his release.”
The young woman, who was not identified by the BBC at the request of her family. She separated from her husband in 2020 and returned to live with her family. She was accused by her husband of adultery a year later and was found guilty in June 2022 by a court in Costi, White Nile, Sudan.
He appealed the decision. He is currently awaiting the court verdict.
Zulaima Ishak, head of the Ministry of Social Development’s Anti-Violence Against Women, told the BBC: He tried to tell the authorities in Khartoum. Capital that this sentence was in error. But the country has no government ministers. Making it difficult to reach out to help with this matter.
Human rights organizations said the woman was unable to access a lawyer while in custody. She was not even aware of the allegations she was facing.
Mossaad Mohamed Ali, director of the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), said: “We have compelling information that this young woman was abused. The police were forced to sign a confession.”
The young woman’s attorney, Intesar Abdala, told the BBC in hopes that hearing the appeal the court “will do the right thing” and release her client.
image source, FITNESS
Protesters in the Sudanese capital hold placards stating: “Throwing a stone is torture.”
Sudan continues to apply the death penalty for crimes Allah enumerates in the Quran, such as theft and adultery, where Sudanese law imposes sanctions for these crimes such as beatings, beheadings, hanging and stone throwing.
In 2015, the Sudanese government pledged to abolish the death penalty by stoning. But the Human Rights Organization said so. No such sanction has ever been lifted.
Sulaima Ishak told the BBC: “Even the most conservative politicians disagree with stoning… but making changes here takes a long time. Then gradually go through the judicial process. and women are the ones who suffer ”.
Hala al-Karib, regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (Siha), affirmed the adultery law in Sudan. “Unjustly imposed on women”
The latest person sentenced to death by stoning for adultery is a young woman named El Sherif Abdulla, but she and her four-month-old baby were released in 2012 after Siha and Amnesty International. campaign to help
But Ms al-Kharib said there could be hundreds of other cases that are still unknown to society. Because women’s rights organizations in Sudan have limited resources.
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Sudanese protest in the streets after the coup in October 2021.
Sudan is governed by a temporary government. Following the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashier in 2019, peace and order laws governing the behavior and dress of women in public were repealed.
However, Sudanese journalist Zainab Mohammed Salih reported that the “moral police” returned to patrol the streets and enforce the law a year after the coup.
The junta reportedly hired a group of former President Bashir’s loyalists after the coup.
In 2021 Sudan signed the United Nations Convention against Torture.
Mossaad Mohamed Ali, director general of the ACJPS, said: “Under this Convention, he defined torture as the voluntary infliction of severe suffering on a person … in which stoning is one of the worst forms of torture.” .
NGOs in Sudan and international organizations calling for the woman’s release have underlined this. The stoning of the court was “cruel, inhuman and degrading”.
Intesar Abdala, a lawyer, was the only person authorized to visit the young woman. who was held for months in a women’s prison in White Nile.
She said the 20-year-old was an ordinary country woman from a religious family. And her parents didn’t abandon her after she was persecuted.
Many parties expressed hope that international pressure on the Sudanese government will help this young woman escape death sentence by throwing stones.
The BBC contacted the Costie City Court for comment. but received no response. Furthermore, he was unable to ask the Sudanese Minister of Justice for comment. because at the moment there is no person in this position
