Sudan Convicts Alleged Gang-Rape Victim

A Sudanese court has convicted a pregnant 18-year-old of "indecent acts" for having the temerity to be the victim of an alleged gang-rape last August. The Ethiopian woman, then 3-months pregnant, was house hunting when seven men allegedly pinned her down, raped her, and filmed it, inside an otherwise empty property, the BBC and Sudan Tribune report. In January, the video was posted online. The woman and all her attackers were arrested; she's been held in a bare police cell since.

The woman was sentenced to one month in jail and fined approximately $880, but the jail sentence was suspended due to her pregnancy. She was acquitted on adultery and prostitution charges—which could have carried the death penalty—because she convinced the court she was divorced. She still, however, faces immigration charges, which carry a possible two-year sentence followed by deportation. Three of her attackers were convicted of adultery and given 100 lashes each, two more were convicted of indecent acts and given 40 lashes, and a sixth was convicted of spreading indecent material. (More Sudan stories.)