Supreme Court: long prison term for Nyala rapist

The Sudanese Supreme Court issued a ruling in support of a South Darfur court sentence against a man convicted for raping and killing a six-year-old girl in Nyala in May 2017.

The Supreme Court issued the ruling on Monday in Khartoum. The Children's Court of Nyala had sentenced the rapist, a shopkeeper named Mustafa, to death by hanging in May 2017.

El Fateh Tayfur, the prosecutor of the Darfur Special Court, said that the blood clans of the victim’s family adhered to their right to retribution on Monday. The parents of the victim also adhered to their right to demand retribution during the Nyala court session.

The incident took place on May 17, as the victim, a six-year-old girl, was sent by her parents to buy milk in El Wehda neighbourhood. After a while she seemed to have disappeared, and the father and residents of El Wehda went to search for her. They suspected she was in a closed shop and requested the police to conduct an inspection.

After breaking the doors, the child’s dead body was found in the middle of the shop. The suspect was hiding under the shop table holding a knife.

Investigations revealed that the victim arrived to the shop of the defendant, who forcibly entered her into the shop and closed the door. He tied her hands behind her neck, tied her to a chair, and put a box load of biscuits and paper napkins down her throat. Her mouth was closed with a cloth.

The victim was raped using Vaseline while lying on a pillow on a rug. A doctor confirmed that the cause of death was the suffocation from inserting a box load of biscuits and paper napkins into her throat, causing a severe shortage of oxygen.

As soon as the news broke on 17 May, people gathered in the streets of the city to hold protests against the murder.

Related:

Girl raped and killed: Nyala city in anger (May 19, 2017)

35 children raped in South Darfur in April, May: A-G (May 31, 2017)