9 MONTHS PREGNANT TEENAGER WHO WAS GANG RAPED STANDS ACCUSED OF ADULTERY AND NOW COULD BE STONED TO DEATH IN SUDAN. Last august when the teenage divorcee Ethiopian girl was around 3months pregnant , she was lured by seven men to an empty property in the capital Khartoum and violently gang raped, she later reported it to police but the officer in charge did not pursue an investigation because it was the Eid holiday. The officer was initialy charged with negligence but the charge was dropped on tuesday. The 18 year old, now 9 months pregnant, is currently being held in a bare cell, sleeping on a concrete floor without a mattress or suitable clothing after being charged with adultery, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) network. SIHA accused Sudan of discriminating against the alleged victim because she is both a woman and a migrant, and demanded her immediate release or transfer to hospital.
According to SIHA one of the attackers filmed the rape and posted it on social media six months later which led to the arrest of both perpetrators and victim. When the case came to court earlier this month 5 of the men between the ages of 18 and 22 stood accused of adultery, another man who said that he didnt have sex with the teenager stood accused of gross indecency. The woman is charged with adultery, although she denied the charges and
is pleading not guilty on the basis that the sexual act was against her
will. Her attempt to make a complaint of rape has been denied on the
technicality that she is under investigation on other charges and she
should have complained at the time of the incident. Her request for bail
has been denied by the attorney general. Sudans judiciary has been given up to £20.6m over the period March 2010 to March 2014 to fund a "safety
and access to justice programme" in Sudan and South Sudan. A Department for International Development (DfID) spokesman said on Tuesday: "We condemn absolutely all human
rights abuses and stoning is an abhorrent practice. DfID recently ended
its support to the Sudanese judiciary in light of the deteriorating
operating environment and our deep concerns about human rights abuses."
