Woman, 20, Faces Beath By Stoning For Cheating On Her Husband 2 min read
Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, 20, was arrested in Sudan’s White Nile state last month before being found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning on June 26 – a decision she hopes to have overturned by the country’s High Court
The 20-year-old says she was denied a lawyer and that the court didn’t obtain a police complaint before the commencement of her trial.
In Sudan – which uses sharia as its legal structure – people convicted of Hudud crimes, which include theft, highway robbery, adultery and apostasy, can have their hands and feet cut off, be flogged or even killed by the state.
The last time a woman was sentenced to death by stoning for cheating on her partner in Sudan was in 2013 – but the woman escaped death when the High Court overturned the decision.
Human rights groups are calling for Maryam’s immediate release.
In a statement, the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) said: “The application of the death penalty by stoning for the crime of adultery is a grave violation of international law, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
People gather outside the Great Mosque in Khartoum, Sudan (
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Stoning as a form of capital punishment is still practiced in several sharia states, including Iran, the UAE, Qatar, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.
In November last year, it emerged Iran planned to sentence a husband and his lover to death for adultery after the man’s father-in-law demanded their blood, according to reports.
The man’s wife is said to have given police video clips of her husband’s infidelity early this year, but also appealed for him and his mistress to be spared the ultimate penalty, local media reports.
It was the wife’s dad who demanded the pair be executed and a court found in his favour, Shargh Daily reports.
