Sudan makes legal amendments

SANAA, July 11 (YPA) – The head of Sudan’s sovereignty council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has approved a package of legal amendments that abolished apostasy and allowed non-Muslims to drink, possess and sell alcohol, as well as criminalize female genital mutilation.

Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdouk saw that the new amendments as an important step in the reform of the justice system.

Hamdouk said in a tweet that the process of reviewing and amending the laws will continue to complete all distortions in Sudanese legal systems.

The amendments covered a package of articles that some considered to demean the dignity of women, where the offence of female genital mutilation was criminalized, and the right of Sudanese women to take their children in the event of travelling abroad without taking the husband’s permission was recognized, in addition to abolishing the article on the indecent dress.

The new amendments prohibited the application of the death penalty to those under the age of 18 and also excluded those who had reached the age of 70 from the death penalty, except for ( adultery, ejaculation, drinking alcohol, theft, hareba, apostasy, and prostitute crimes), retribution, crimes against the State and crimes of public money.

E.M