A Sudanese woman arrested for wearing trousers has been found guilty of flouting Sudan's decency laws, but spared the expected punishment of 40 lashes. Sudanese officials on Monday instead ordered Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein to pay a fine of about $200 following a court hearing in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
As al-Hussein made her way to the courtroom, scores of female supporters, some of them wearing trousers, rallied around her, some shouting: "Freedom, freedom!"
Police rounded many of them up and marched them away.
Asked about the verdict, al-Hussein said that she would refuse to pay the fine.
"I won't pay. I'd rather go to prison," al-Hussein told the AFP news agency by telephone following the trial.
Witnesses who attended the trial said the court had ruled she should be jailed for a month if she failed to pay. Her lawyers said they would try to persuade her.
Al-Hussein had faced a sentence of 40 lashes following her arrest for public indecency, alongside 12 other women, during a raid at a restaurant in Khartoum in July.
Ten of the women accepted a punishment of 10 lashes, but al-Hussein and two other women opted to go to trial.
Source: Al Jazeera (English)
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