Pressure on Sudan to pardon rape victim

The UN and international rights groups have called on Sudan to pardon a 19-year-old girl sentenced to death after she killed her husband as he tried to rape her, saying she was a victim of child marriage and acted in self-defence. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Noura Hussein is facing death by hanging after a Sharia court, which follows Islamic religious laws, found her guilty of premeditated murder for stabbing her husband as he raped her in April. Hussein, who is now 19, was forced into the marriage at the age of 16 and had tried to run away. A report on the allAfrica site notes that UN Women, UN Population Fund and UN Office of the Special Advisor on Africa have now appealed to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's Government for clemency for Hussein. ‘Speaking as the voices of women and girls of the world, we plead with the Government of Sudan to save the life of Hussein,’ they said in a joint statement.