Judge revokes death sentence of teenager charged with killing rapist husband

A teenager sentenced to death for killing her husband, who she said has tried to rape her, will instead be imprisoned for five years after a court overturned the ruling, her lawyer has said.

Noura Hussein's lawyer Al-Fateh Hussein said a Sudanese court made the decision today, also fining her 375 Sudanese pounds (roughly £15).

The 19-year-old said her father had made her marry the man, who was also her cousin.

She was sentenced to death by hanging last month by an Islamic religious court for his murder.

Rights campaigners had called for President Omar al-Bashir to pardon Hussein, saying she was forced into a child marriage and had acted in self-defense, and today the appeals court quashed the death sentence.

The lawyer gave no further details about the decision.

The teenager said she was betrothed at the age of 16 but refused to accept the union and sought refuge with a relative for three years.

She returned to her family home in Khartoum in April this year after her father said the marriage was cancelled, but found she had been duped and preparations for the wedding were under way.

She said that she refused to have sex with her husband after the wedding, but on the sixth day he raped her as three of his male relatives held her down to restrain her.

The following day, he attempted to rape her again and as she struggled to stop him, she stabbed him, killing him.

The Islamic religious court had found her guilty in May of premeditated murder.

In Sudan the legal age of marriage is 10 and marital rape isn't considered a crime.

Sudan is ranked 165 out of 188 countries on the U.N.'s Gender Inequality Index, which measures how women fare compared to men when it comes to access to health, education, political participation and employment opportunities.