After lot of outrage from the commoners, an appeals court in Sudan has overturned death sentence for the woman who killed her husband for allegedly raping her. In a case that has sparked the debate on forced child marriage and marital rape in the African nation, the 19-year-old Noura Hussein will now serve a 5-year sentence for killing the 32-year-old man. Over one million people signed an online petition #JusticeForNoura to overturn her death penalty. It has been further reported that the court charges the family 337,000 Sudanese pounds (over Rs. 12 Lakh) -- a practice which is termed as “blood money."

The 5-year sentence could be a welcome decision but now Noura's family is faced with the daunting task of coughing up the blood money. The fine,  also known as bloodwit, is a compensation which should be paid by the offender (usually a murderer) to the victim's family. But in this case, it's unclear who the real victim is.  Noura was forced to get married at an early age of 16 to her cousin, Abdulrahman Mohamed Hammad who was 16 years senior to her.

The 19-year-old’s mother Zainab Ahmed told the BBC: “She had got a knife ready to take her own life if he touched her again.” When Hussein’s husband attempted to do violate her the next day, she stabbed him to death. People all over the world believed that Noura's earlier sentence of death penalty was unjustified since she only acted in self defence.

The London-based NGO for human rights, Amnesty International welcomed the court’s order. The organisation even asked the country to reform its laws on marriage and marital rape. According to the organisation, justice doesn't  mean punishing the victim. It stated: “Noura Hussein was the victim of a brutal attack by her husband and five years’ imprisonment for acting in self-defence is a disproportionate punishment.”

The Sudanese laws states and allows children above 10 to get married. As the online petition succeeded in overturning  the 19-year old's death sentence,  we only hope that Noura will be the last victim to be punished. The legal authorities of Sudan should take it as a prospect to revise the laws for child marriage, forced marriage and marital rape, so that no other person ever undergoes to penalisation in the nation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 04:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).