A woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death for stoning for adultery, the first known case in the country in almost a decade.
Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, 20, was arrested by police in Sudan’s White Nile state last month.
Tiyrab says he is appealing the decision. Most stoning sentences, which are predominantly against women, are overturned in high court.
Activists fear the ruling is a sign that the October military coup has emboldened lawmakers to back the small gains in women’s rights made under the country’s transitional government.
The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), based in Uganda, said the ruling violated national and international law and called for Tiyrab’s “immediate and unconditional release”.
The center said the woman did not receive a fair trial and was not told that the information she gave during interrogation would be used against her. Tiyrab was also denied legal representation, he said.
“The application of the death penalty for stoning for the crime of adultery is a serious violation of international law, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” he said. the center.
In 2020, Sudan’s transitional government, which follows the expulsion of Omar al-Bashir, announced reforms to some of its hard-line criminal laws and Sharia policies. Reforms did not include stoning, but in August the country ratified the UN convention against torture. The ACJPS said stoning was a form of state-sanctioned torture and violated the country’s human rights obligations.
Human rights lawyer Jehanne Henry said the sentence “shows the harsh laws of sharia [and] sanctions are still being applied in Sudan. ”
“The case of stoning death is a reminder that criminal law reforms during the transition [government] they were not complete and that such harsh and archaic punishments are still officially in the books. “
The flogging, which was outlawed in 2020, is still being punished by the courts. The last known case of a woman convicted of stoning for adultery was in the state of South Kordofan in 2013. The sentence was overturned.