Posted on 03/27/2002 1:43:21 PM PST by knighthawk
KHARTOUM: Sudan's justice minister defended his country's application of Islamic punishments such as death by stoning and flogging, but said Wednesday that mistakes in their implementation will be avoided in the future.
Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin also criticized an emergency court ruling in December that sentenced an 18-year old pregnant woman to death by stoning. He said the ruling was "excessive and cruel" and should not be passed on the elderly, pregnant women, or children.
Abok Alfa Abok, a Christian member of the large southern Dinka tribe, was pregnant at the time she was tried for adultery in the southwestern state of Darfur. She appealed the court decision and her sentence was commuted in February to 75 lashes. Abok had delivered by the time her sentence was carried out.
The New-York based Human Rights Watch condemned Abok's death sentence as "cruel and inhuman" and said trials before emergency courts are unfair.
Yassin, the Sudanese justice minister, said he opposed the December death sentence but declined to comment at the time to avoid interfering with court procedures.
"Now I am saying this ruling was not appropriate. In fact, it was excessive and cruel," Yassin told The Associated Press.
Administrative measures will be taken to avoid such mistakes in the future, he said without elaborating.
Yassin defended the use of strict Islamic penalties, which are in force in most of Sudan, arguing that they deter crime.
"Flogging is a humiliating punishment because it is painful and degrading," Yassin said. "People try to avoid it and therefore crimes that result in flogging are curtailed. Despite the particularity of the emergency courts, I stand for a court being compatible with the imperative of justice, such as proper procedures, proofs, and rules of law," he said.
According to Human Rights Watch, Abok had no legal representation during court procedures which denied her a fair trial. The court procedures were conducted in Arabic, not Abok's native language.
Yassin said Islamic criminal penalties shall be applied on Christians and Muslims alike wherever they are in place. Exemption from Islamic laws is subject to geographical basis, but a Christian living in a state where Islamic laws are observed is subject to their enforcement, he said.
Death by stoning, lashes and amputations are not enforced in South Sudan, where the majority of inhabitants are animists and Christians.
Fighting since 1983 between the Islamic government and southern rebels has claimed 2 million lives so far, mainly through war-induced famine, and left 4 millions displaced inside Sudan. The rebels are fighting for greater autonomy and religious freedom in the south, where most inhabitants follow traditional African beliefs.
"If a displaced person wishes to come to one region of the country then he has to be ready to observe laws in force in that region," Yassin said.
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