Sudan Repeals Death Penalty For Homosexuality
Sudan has repealed a provision of its Penal Code that imposed the death penalty for everyone who was found guilty engaging in consensual same-sex relations.
Anyone who was convicted of sodomy three times “shall be punished with death, or with life imprisonment,” stated Article 148 of the Sudanese Penal Code from 1991.
According to the ‘Washington Blade’, when Abdel Fattah al-Burhan became chair of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, which was created last year to govern the country on an interim basis after then-President Omar al-Bashir was ousted, he shared with Noor Sultan, executive director of the Bedayaa Organization, an LGBTQ advocacy group that works in Sudan and Egypt, that he approved the removal of the death penalty provision from Article 148.
The Sovereignty Council also removed the “hundred lashes” punishment from Article 148. Consensual same-sex sexual relations in Sudan are still punishable by up to seven years in prison.
“It is a great step toward change and reflect the willingness of the government,” Sultan said. “The law is still there and the jail sentence is still there, but we are optimistic.”
Maria Sjödin, deputy executive director of OutRight Action International, noted in a statement the repeal of the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual relations is among the reforms the Sovereignty Council approved.
“The removal of the death penalty for same-sex intimacy in Sudan among other important reforms, such as the banning of female genital mutilation and stoning for apostasy, is an important step for the human rights of LGBTIQ people, and human rights in Sudan overall,” said Sjödin.
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