One of five Sudanese journalists on trial for publishing articles related to the alleged rape of a female activist was jailed for a month on Tuesday.
As the AFP is reporting, Fatima Ghazali -- a reporter at the Sudanese daily Al-Jarida -- was handed a month sentence for writing about Safiya Ishaq, a youth activist who claimed in videos posted online that she was raped repeatedly by three security officers after her arrest in Khartoum in February. A judge convicted Ghazali of publishing lies and ordered her to pay a fine of 2,000 Sudanese pounds ($625) or spend a month in prison, lawyer Hassan Abdullah al-Hussein told AFP.
"She was given a choice to pay immediately a fine of 2,000 Sudanese pounds or go to prison for a month." Ghazali's lawyer Hassan Abdullah is quoted by Reuters as saying. "She decided to go to prison."
In addition, Ghazali's editor-in-chief Saad el-Din Ibrahim was given a choice to pay a 5,000-pound fine or spend one month in prison but had not decided yet, Reuters is reporting.
The sentence against Ghazali is the first ruling after state prosecutors launched charges against several local journalists for writing about the alleged rape of the activist earlier this year. Local officials reportedly claim that writing about rape can cause more damage than the act itself.