A Sudanese appeals court has overturned a sentence of death by stoning for a pregnant Christian woman accused of adultery, and has sent the case back to the lower court for fresh sentencing, court documents showed.
The appeals court in Sudan's southern Darfur state, bordering the Central African Republic, ruled late last month that the lower court should give the defendant a rebuke sentence, not capital punishment, the documents received by Reuters on Sunday showed.
A criminal court in Nyala, southwest of Khartoum, had sentenced Abuk al-Daw Akok to death in December by stoning. Akok is a member of Sudan's Dinka tribe, the largest ethnic group in the south.
The ruling was made in line with Islamic Sharia law, even though Akok was Christian. She remains in prison in Nyala.
Rights group Human Rights Watch, which said Akok was 18 years old when she was sentenced, had criticised the death sentence as barbaric.