By Megha Mohan, KHARTOUM Sudan
Efforts to prevent a young Sudanese woman being stoned to death, after she was convicted of adultery, are being hindered by the absence of government ministers in the country.
Sudan has been run by a military
junta since a coup one year ago.
Campaigners say the
20-year-old didn't get a fair trial and should be freed.
A government official agreed
that the trial was "a joke" but added: "We don't have a minister
who can intervene to demand her release."
The young woman, who separated
from her husband in 2020 and went to live with her family, was accused of
adultery by her husband a year later. She was found guilty in June 2022 by a
court in the city of Kosti, in Sudan's White Nile state.
Her appeal against the conviction
has now been heard and the court's judgement is awaited.
Sulaima Ishaq, who heads the
Violence Against Women Unit at the Ministry of Social Development, told the BBC
that she had been telling officials in the capital, Khartoum, that the trial was
flawed, but that the lack of government ministers made it hard to get her point
across.
Human rights groups say the
woman, whom the BBC is not naming at the family's request, was not given access
to a lawyer while in custody and was not aware of the charges against her.
"We have grounds to
believe she was illegally forced into signing a confession by the police,"
says Mossaad Mohamed Ali, executive director of the African Centre for Justice
and Peace Studies (ACJPS).
The woman's lawyer, Intisar
Abdala, told the BBC she hoped that following the appeal, the court would now
"do the right thing" and release her client.
Sudan still imposes the death
penalty for some hudud crimes - offences specified by Allah in
the Quran, including theft and adultery. In Sudanese law they carry penalties
such as flogging, the amputation of hands and feet, hanging and stoning.
A government promise in 2015
to withdraw death by stoning as a form of punishment was never acted on, human
rights groups say.
"Even the most
conservative politicians are against stoning," Sulaima Ishaq told the BBC.
"But things take a lot of time to change here and then feed through to the
courts, and women are the ones who suffer."
Hala Al-Karib, regional
director for the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (Siha),
said that Sudan's adultery laws were "disproportionately applied to
women".
The last person known by
campaigners to have been sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery charge
was a young woman called Intisar El Sherif Abdalla. She and her four-month-old
baby were released in 2012 following a campaign by Siha and Amnesty
International. But Ms Al-Karib said there could have been other cases that had
gone unnoticed.
"Feminists and human
rights groups in the country have minimal resources and there could well be
hundreds of cases we are not aware of."
Under the transitional
government that took charge in Sudan after the uprising against President Omar
al-Bashir in 2019, a "public order" law that controlled how women
acted and dressed in public was repealed. However, Sudanese journalist Zeinab
Mohammed Salih has reported that the "morality police" who used to
patrol the streets and enforce this law have returned following a coup one year
ago.
There are also reports that
Bashir loyalists have been re-hired by the ruling junta that came to power
after the coup.
"We were hopeful that
Sudan's transitional government would establish changes to Sudan's legal
framework, which continues to openly criminalise women and girls and contribute
to their subordination and inequality," said Hala Al-Kirab. "But we
were naive."
In 2021, Sudan also became a
signatory to the UN Convention against Torture.
"Under the Convention,
torture is defined as causing a person intentional and intense suffering,"
said Mossaad Mohamed Ali of the ACJPS. "Stoning is one of the worst forms
of torture."
International and local NGOs
calling for the woman's release have also described the sentence of stoning as
"cruel, inhuman and degrading".
Lawyer Intisar Abdala is the
only person who has been allowed to visit the 20-year-old, who has been held
for months in a women's prison in White Nile State.
"The young woman is in
alright physical health but she is understandably very anxious. There's not
much more I can say as a woman lawyer who lives and works to help other women
in a conservative region like Kosti," she said.
She added that the young woman
was an "ordinary and simple country girl from a very traditional, and
religious, farming family" and that her parents had not abandoned her.
"We are awaiting a
judgement from the court of appeal but nobody can tell when that will come.
Waiting is our only option."
Those campaigning for the
woman's release say they would welcome international pressure.
"We are concerned that
the appeal court will not rule in the young woman's favour. We save women from
these laws when the international community raises its voice and adds pressure
on the Sudanese government, and that must happen again in this case," said
Hala Al-Karib.
"This may be a shocking
ruling globally, but doesn't come as a shock to us."
The BBC approached Kosti
criminal court for comment, but has not received a reply.
It was not possible to ask the
Justice Minister for an official response because the post is unfilled.
A spokesman for Sudan's
embassy in London said: "We are fully aware of this case and as far as we
know, this is not the court's final decision. We have contacted the justice
authorities in Sudan in this regard, and we are awaiting their response." -
BBC
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