Sudan teen’s death sentence for killing rapist husband cut to 5 years

A teenager in Sudan who was given the death penalty for killing her husband, who she says raped her, has had the sentence reduced to five years on appeal, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

The court in Khartoum commuted Noura Hussein’s death penalty to five years as well as ordered her to pay blood money to the husband’s family, defense lawyer Abdullah Ibrahim told dpa.

According to human rights group Amnesty International, Hussein was forced against her will into marriage at the age of 16.

After the marriage, she was raped by her husband while three of his male relatives held her down. When he tried to rape her again, Hussein allegedly stabbed him in self-defense.

Now 19, she was sentenced to death by a court earlier this year in predominantly Muslim Sudan, where marital rape is not a crime.

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“While the quashing of this death sentence is hugely welcome news, it must now lead to a legal review to ensure that Noura Hussein is the last person to go through this ordeal,” said Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director in a statement.

“Noura Hussein was the victim of a brutal attack by her husband and five years’ imprisonment for acting in self-defense is a disproportionate punishment.”

There had been huge international pressure on Sudan to throw out Hussein’s sentence, with the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. Women and UNFPA all voicing their concern.

Celebrities such as British supermodel Naomi Campbell also got behind the cause under the hashtag #JusticeForNoura.