The information was released to the public by a Sudanese human rights group. “On June 26, 2022, relate Sudan Tribune, Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, a 20-year-old woman, has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery by a criminal court in White Nile State,” in the south of the country.
As the news site explains next, “Under Islamic law, the hudud [c’est-à-dire les peines légales prescrites par le Coran ou la Sunna] including apostasy, theft, adultery and consumption of alcohol are punishable by punishment such as amputation of hands and feet, flogging and death”.
However, “in 2020, the transitional government had announced reforms concerning some of its toughest laws”, note from his side The Guardian. The abolition of stoning was not included in these reforms, but even so, the last known case of such conviction for adultery in Sudan was in 2013.
The sentence was eventually overturned by the Sudanese Supreme Court, reports the British daily, which would happen in the majority of cases of women sentenced to stoning in the country.
There is therefore still hope that Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, who appealed the decision, will escape this sentence. Already activists have expressed concern that his case represents “a signal that the military coup of October 2021 [qui a renversé le gouvernement de transition qui avait succédé à Omar Al-Bachir en 2019] encouraged judges to roll back the small gains made in women’s rights during the country’s transitional government,” concludes the progressive media.