Court overturns death sentence for child bride who killed her husband after he raped her

A death sentence passed on a child bride for killing her husband after he raped her has been overturned, according to her lawyer.

Teenager Noura Hussein has been given a five-year prison sentence instead by an appeal court in Sudan.

Her plight caused an outcry worldwide. Campaigners, including Theirworld supporters who signed our petition, rallied around the hashtag #JusticeForNoura and the United Nations appealed to the Sudanese government for clemency.

Noura’s case turned the spotlight on child marriage- and how it deprives girls of education – marital rape and female rights in the northeast African nation.

Sudanese law allows children above 10 to be married with a judge’s permission. One in three girls are married before they turn 18 and more than one in 10 by the age of 15.

Noura, who is now 19, was 16 when she was forced into a marriage contract by her father – but was allowed to finish school. 

The wedding eventually went ahead near Khartoum and she was raped by her 35-year-old husband as three of his male relatives restrained her.

The next day he tried to rape her again and she stabbed him during a struggle.

“The appeals court has cancelled her execution and sentenced her to five years in jail,” Hussein’s lawyer Al-Fateh Hussein told AFP news agency.

“The jail term is effective from the time she was arrested,” he said, adding that his client had also been fined. Noura has been held in prison since May 2017.

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