Corpun file 6147 at www.corpun.com

Bergen Record, Hackensack, NJ, USA, 20 April 1998

Flogging stopped for women, seniors

The Associated Press

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Women and older people will no longer face the punishment of flogging in most cases, Sudan's chief justice has announced.

Obeid Hajj Ali issued the decree Saturday, the pro-government newspaper Alwan said.

However, it quoted him as saying that women and people over 60 years of age could face flogging for crimes such as adultery or drinking alcohol, which are forbidden by Islam.

The Sudan Human Rights Organization said in a December statement that Sudanese authorities fined and flogged about 40 Sudanese women who publicly protested the government's policy of sending young men to war zones.

Police arrested the women after they marched toward a U.N. office in Khartoum to hand over a protest note, the human rights group said.

The women were accused of "disturbing public order," a term usually used by the government for anti-government demonstrations.

Copyright © 1998 Bergen Record Corp.