A Sudanese court on Sunday acquitted 24 girls accused of wearing indecent clothes at a women’s party in Khartoum.
- Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein, right, who faces 40 lashes on the charge of “indecent dressing”, flashes a victory sign to her supporters as she enters the court in Khartoum Tuesday Aug. 4, 2009 (AP)
The young women most of them are from South Sudan were arrested last Thursday for wearing short skirts and tighten trousers in a women’s concert in Al-Mamoura district south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The public order police called “The Community Security” brought charges against the young women under article 152 of the Sudanese Criminal Code concerning wearing an obscene clothing.
The judge of Arkaweet Court Ibrahim Khaled, on Sunday, acquitted the girls and ordered to close the case.
However, he found the party’s organiser, Helene Gabriel, guilty for providing false information and ordered her to pay a 10,000 pounds fine or a month’s imprisonment in case of non-payment.
Gabriel had informed the local authorities that she would organise a family party while it was a commercial event for cosmetics and beauty products.
The court also fined the sound technician 5,000 pounds for violating the Public Order Law. He was found responsible for the noise nuisance in the neighbourhood.
The controversial public order police is tasked with regulating the behaviour of men and women according to Islamic Shari’a law. Many critics say that the law is not applied uniformly and in many cases allows for abuses by police officers particularly against women.
Civil society activists demand the Sudanese government to repeal laws that violate human rights and contradict with the 2005 Sudanese constitution and the international conventions including the Public Order Act.
[“Source-sudantribune”]
