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The appeals court in Damer, capital of Sudan’s northern Nile state, acquitted on Tuesday a girl sentenced to death for collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces.
The Atbara Court of First Instance had previously sentenced medical student Aya Mustafa Khairallah to death for collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces.
The girl’s defense lawyer, Muhammad Hashem Abdel Rahman, told Sudan Tribune: “The Damer city appeals court acquitted his client, Aya Mustafa, and overturned the death sentence handed down against her by the Atbara court of first instance.”
He noted that security authorities arrested Aya Mustafa on April 14 and accused her of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces, a few months after she was displaced to the city of Atbara, where she had lived since August 2023 with first-degree relatives.
Abdul Rahman reported that the authorities accused his client of having links with the Rapid Support Forces because she wore the uniform of those forces, although she had not committed any crime, as she was charged along with her sister, Alaa, and their mother before the trial. The court dropped the charges against the sister and mother.
He said the court of first instance charged Aya Mustafa under Article 51 of the Criminal Code, which deals with providing information to a hostile state or its agents, because a witness, her brother Mustafa, said his sister wore a Rapid Support uniform before the war.
In December 2023, Aya Mustafa was put on trial for wearing and posing for photos with the Rapid Support Forces uniform.
The “Say No to Women’s Oppression” initiative stands in solidarity with Aya Mustafa Kelala in the context of the “Let’s Unite Against the Wounds” campaign, which aims to review all judicial decisions against girls and women in unfair trials.
Lawyer Muhammad Hashem Abdel Rahman said his client informed Atbara First Instance Court Judge Imad al-Din Abdel Rahim that the Rapid Support uniform she was wearing belonged to one of their neighbors and a member of the forces, but he issued the death sentence against her.
He said the defence team appealed the trial court’s decision to the El Damer Court of Appeal, which overturned the death sentence and acquitted his client, noting that they were sending a letter to Port Sudan Prison in Red Sea State in eastern Sudan to effect his acquittal.
Following the 10 June ruling by the Court of First Instance, the authorities transferred Haya Mustafa to Port Sudan Prison.
Numerous courts in eastern and northern Sudan have sentenced dozens of people to death for collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces, with jurists questioning the fairness of the proceedings.
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