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Sudan: gang rape victim found guilty of “indecent acts”

February 20, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – An 18-year-old Ethiopian woman who said she was gang raped by seven men in Sudan has been found guilty of committing indecent acts and is also facing a possible jail

February 20, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – An 18-year-old Ethiopian woman who said she was gang raped by seven men in Sudan has been found guilty of committing indecent acts and is also facing a possible jail term for immigration offences.
According to a press statement issued by the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) on Thursday, the woman was sentenced to one month in prison, which has been suspended, and fined 5000 Sudanese pounds (about US$961).
The woman, who was three months pregnant at the time of the attack, had been facing a possible death sentence after beingcharged with adultery and prostitution.
However, the court accepted that the woman was divorced and thus the charges of adultery were not applied.
SIHA said the woman’s conviction of indecent acts sends a message that sexual violence is in part the fault of the victim.
“This verdict reflects the substantial challenges in enabling victims of sexual violence to pursue justice. It will also serve to prevent future victims from speaking out and seeking assistance and entrenches a culture of impunity for perpetrators,” Hala Elkarib, the SIHA Network’s regional director, said.
It’s alleged the attack took place in August 2013 when the woman was lured to an empty property while searching for a rental home in Omdurman, which neighbours the capital, Khartoum, where she was pinned down and raped by seven men.
The court convicted three men of adultery, who were sentenced to 100 lashes, while a further two were convicted of indecent acts and sentenced to 40 lashes and ordered to pay fines. A sixth person was convicted of distributing indecent material, while another man was set free due to insufficient evidence.
Those subject to lashings had their sentences carried out immediately afterwards in a closed court session.
The court has also threatened to charge the victim, who is now nine months pregnant, for illegally entering Sudan, which carries a maximum jail sentence of two years. If convicted she would be deported to Ethiopia after serving her sentence.
The woman, along with the seven perpetrators, was arrested and charged in January after footage of the attack filmed by one of the men was circulated on social media sites. The charges related to Articles 153 and 154 of Sudan’s criminal code, pertaining to the making and distribution of indecent material and indecent behaviour.
However, the charges were upgraded earlier this month to include Articles 151 referring to scandalous acts, 154 relating to prostitution, and 146 which refers to adultery, which carries a possible sentence of death by stoning.
Following her arrest the woman was held in a bare police cell, with authorities denying requests for her to be transferred to a medical facility.
The attorney-general also blocked the woman from filing a complaint of rape as she was under investigation for other criminal offences and did not report the incident immediately.
However, it was later revealed a police officer who the woman spoke to following her attack, decided against pursuing her complaint because it was the Eid Al Fitr public holiday.
The women’s advocacy group said the case has raised multiple challenges regarding the treatment of rape victims and their capacity to pursue justice.
It says Sudanese legislation, in respect of Zina (adultery), effectively criminalises all sexual relationships outside of the marital bond, and is open to arbitrary interpretation, meaning even victims of sexual violence are liable to be charged.
The case has highlighted Sudan’s treatment of migrant women, who remain among the most marginalised sectors of society, vulnerable to violence, abuse and persecution.
“The Sudanese judiciary today has demonstrated its incapacity to protect the most vulnerable in society and instead attempt to delegitimise those that experience abuse at the hands of its citizens,” said Elkarib. The levelling of immigration charges against the victim further denies her protection by the state and protracts the punishment and emotional stress against her whilst she has been subjected to the most brutal of crimes,” she added.

Source: Sudan tribune

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16 COMMENTS
  • sidi dabdu February 21, 2014

    Here we go again. The victim becomes the guilty. The Arabs have always looked down on Africans worthy of nothing. We all know when we were refuges in Sudan,you can’t even walk with your 70 years old mother with out your mother being stared at by their hungry eyes. However,they don’t stare at their women. They dare. Tis shows the disrespect for Habashas including Eritreans. Preserve sister. Just will one day be served.

  • Merhawu Kunfu February 21, 2014

    if your are christian in Sudan, you will never get justice. Sudan is one of the worst countries to be christian.

  • Kabire February 21, 2014

    This is a shameful “Arab justice” of the Islamic Republic of Sudan toward christian Africans by none other than the Arab “Abeeds”, as their Arab gods call them.

    Who will forget what this savage Arabs did recently to many Eritreans such as Casco and his wife Million? Arabs and savagery are the two faces of their arrested development for more than one thousand years now. Shameful people with shameful images.

    There is a saying in Darfur: an Arab comes to your house to rob your cattle, rape your daughter and wife, to burn your language and identity, and then take over your land and enslave your entire village.

  • Dala ksha February 21, 2014

    As long as you are Christian no matter Eritrean or Ethiopian you are habesh and means chaep in their eyes.

  • ahmed omer February 22, 2014

    .from the beginning I am not supporting this side or the other ,to be honest abusing and idiot justice everywhere starting from Eritrea and Ethiopia .In Eritrea there is sex slavery beside other abuses .In Ethiopia there is a clear and a hidden discrimination .some commentators talking

    • Tezareb February 22, 2014

      Ahmed,
      what a retard could you be to write the above turd as a response?
      The poor Ethiopian woman was gang raped by savage Sudanese and the Islamist regime in Sudan, not only denies her justice but convicts her, the victim of rape, as a criminal.

      Is your head full of sand?

  • ahmed omer February 22, 2014

    .from the beginning I am not supporting this side or the other ,to be honest abusing and idiot justice everywhere starting from Eritrea and Ethiopia .In Eritrea there is sex slavery beside other abuses .In Ethiopia there is a clear and a hidden discrimination .some commentators talking about abusing Christian in Sudan how a bout abusing Muslim in Eritrea and Ethiopia and in central Africa .Examples in Eritrea (islamai addi yabolun semai andi yaibolon ) In Ethiopia does not a allowed for Muslim to build a musqe in Aksum there are many many examples in.

    • dawit February 23, 2014

      No, this is an idiotic excuse to justify and trying to make what happened to the poor victim look normal. Christians are the victims of the current regime in Eritrea rather than Muslims while Muslims in Ethiopia are enjoying equal rights for the first time in the entire history of the nation and this is by their own account. No government in Ethiopia has officially disallowed building a mosque in Aksum, it is the residents who believe the city is a sacred land of Tsion meaning that it is like requesting to build a mosque or a synagogue in the heart of Debre Damo monastery. As a Muslim would you accept other religions to build their worshiping structure in Medina or Mecca? You don’t even allow them to set foot in those places, remember!

      • ahmed omer February 24, 2014

        Dawit
        look I am no saying Sudanese regime is angles ,but I saying abusing from this kind everywhere even more in ERITREA do you know in ERITREA if a female go to the police station and complained that she got raped she has asked if she virgin or not if she is not she has not a right to complain.you saying that Christians are more victim than Muslims I am sure no one believe this kind,but I am going to give you you one example which is about who inns behind a bars as a result of 21st of January movement for change
        yes Eritrean regime is a rare dictator in the world .I have a question for who said Islamic regime to the Sudanese regime in the same time has strong relationship with Eritrean regime and killed a lot ogre good Muslim in Darfour
        for someone who said why can not build a church in MAKKA AND MADINA OK IS these cities are Eritrean or Ethiopian as well can not Muslim to claim to A mosque in Vatican .
        please do not kill us by saying a poor Ethiopian female victim in Sudan I condemn what is happen to her in the sometime I condemn The mass raping in ERITREA in sex slavery by Asiyas’s army leaders .in brief a crimes has not relation with or religion we have seen in last days a Christian guys in Central Africa killed a Muslim and thy BBQ him .Christian killing each other (Rwanda )Muslims killing each other Somalia .

        • dawit February 25, 2014

          Ahmed Omer

          You’re Sudanese, what are doing in an Eritrean web site? No matter how many excuses you throw, you can’t change the fact that what happened to the poor girl is a literal interpretation of the verse, ANSUR AKUK HATA HUWA ZALIM.

          • ahmed omer February 28, 2014

            Dawit
            If I am not Eritrean who is going to be Eritrean .Look when my fighting for Eritrea your family was fighting for Ethiopia the same like you doing now why you do not talk a bout Eritrean poor girls getting rape and killed in refugees camps in Ethiopia and Sudan even more painful us our people getting abuse from the Eritrran regime which made them
            to leave Eritrea . you said (انصر أخاك ظالما أو مظلوما ) do you know what this means ?:-It is means support your brother when he get abused defendingfor him ,but when he is abuser support him by telling that he is on a wrong side or correct him .again and again I am pure Eritrean you could not put on any-side Sudan or Ethiopia never I have hold documents from the two countries .even you are defending Ethiopian girl and I did not accused you that you Ethiopian .
            And what is a wrong with ASSENNA KILLING US BY THIS IDIOT
            REPEATING NEWS So please where are you from the mass raping in Eritrea .

          • Suleiman Salim March 3, 2014

            Ahmed,

            “It is means support your brother when he get abused defendingfor him ,but when he is abuser support him by telling that he is on a wrong side or correct him.”

            Well done. Dawit will be careful in the future before saying something which he doesn’t know properly.

  • sidiabdu@gmail.com February 22, 2014

    Brother ahmed your comments are valid. However, we are now commenting on one one specific incident which is a symptom of a larger problem n Sudan. There are a lot of our people there who run away from hell. Remember rapist doesn’t discriminate.

    • Suleiman Salim March 3, 2014

      “Remember rapist doesn’t discriminate.”

      That is not always true. There are cases in which rapists calculate their risks. Do you think – in our case – the rapists would have raped a pregnant Sudanese woman in the heart of Omdurman ? Use your brain!!!

  • michael tedla February 24, 2014

    PSudanese government plays a double standard toward those who cannot afford to pay bribery.i used to live in sudan even if they catch you murdering somebody bribe who ever caches u pay him little money he will lets ug free. Bulshuna enda esun sudanen no difference.

  • mh April 30, 2014

    Hey guys no more safe in the world nowadays, don’t try to tell me in the developed western countries are better, it could be systematic but no justice ! and what do you expected from Sudan, Middle East and Africa SAVAGE people including Ethiopia & Eritrea.

    The only solution i see it is to take revenge whenever you get chance, tit for tat.

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