Following widespread calls for her pardon, 19-year-old Noura Hussein‘s death sentence has been commuted by a Sudanese court.
Noura had been sentenced to death by a Sudanese court after stabbing her husband, who raped her, to death.
According to CNN, Noura will instead serve a 5-year jail term, and her family will pay 337,000 Sudanese pounds ($18,700) to her late husband’s family, a practice that is termed “blood money.”
Her lawyers have revealed they plan to appeal both the jail term and the fine.
Noura’s story is a harrowing one. She had been forced into marriage at the age of 15, and she ran away from home.
She was, however, tricked into returning 3 years later, and was promptly handed over to her husband’s family.
She had refused to consummate the marriage, and so her husband had raped her while a relative held her down.
He had attempted raping her again the next day when she stabbed him to death.
The court had sentenced her to death, but people all over the world protested, including celebrities like Naomi Campbell, and her sentence has now been commuted.
