27 June 2018
Death sentence overturned for teen who killed husband after alleged rape
By Jessica Rapana Whimn, WHIMN
A teenage girl who killed her husband after he allegedly raped her has had her life spared after an appeals court in Sudan overturned the death sentence given to her last month, her lawyer says.
Noura Hussein, 19, was instead sentenced to five years in prison, according to her lawyer, Abdelaha Mohamad, the BBC reports.
Last month, an Islamic court sentenced her to death by hanging after she was convicted of the premeditated murder of her husband, Abdulrahman Mohamed Hammad, who was 16 years her senior and also her cousin.
Hussein claimed her husband had recruited some of his own cousins to hold her down while he raped her but, when he tried to do it again the next day, she had stabbed him to death with a knife.
Her imprisonment has sparked global outrage, with many celebrities — such as Emma Watson and Naomi Campbell — backing an online campaign for her release, dubbed #JusticeforNoura.
Amnesty International called the decision to overturn her death sentence “hugely welcome news” but added that the five-year jail term was still a “disproportionate punishment.” Instead, it urged reforms on marriage and marital rape laws so that “victims are not the ones who are penalized.”
Hussein had been forced into marriage at the age of 16.
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