Sudan Frees Woman Jailed for Wearing Pants

A woman journalist convicted of public indecency for wearing trousers outdoors and facing a month in jail says she was freed from prison after her fine was paid without her knowledge.

Lubna Hussein as a protest against the country's draconian morality laws. Hussein tells The Associated Press that prison authorities set her free without an explanation Tuesday.

She says she later learned that the government-allied Journalists Union paid the fine on her behalf. She says the government was "unnerved" by her presence in prison because she would report on conditions inside.

A judge on Monday imposed the fine after convicting her, but he did not impose the maximum penalty of 40 lashes.

Sudan's government implements a conservative version of Islamic law in the north. Under public indecency laws, anyone committing an act or wearing clothing deemed indecent can be punished with a flogging or a fine, but lawyers and human rights groups say the law is too vague and arbitrary. In the capital the "public order" police enforce the laws, breaking up parties and scolding men and women who mingle in public.

In mostly Muslim northern Sudan, many women wear traditional flowing robes that also cover their hair, but it is also not uncommon for women to wear trousers, even though conservatives consider it immodest.

Public order police arrested Hussein along with around a dozen other women in a Khartoum public cafe. Ten of the women received a quick, closed-door trial and were flogged soon afterward, avoiding the social stigma associated with a public trial on morality charges.

Hussein, however, insisted on a public court and even resigned from her job in the U.N.'s public information office because it gave her immunity.

After a three-hour session Monday, the judge ruled Hussein's outfit indecent and imposed the fine. He said her clothes violated traditions that a woman should only "adorn themselves" for their husbands and not in public, Hussein's lawyer said.

Galal al-Sayed, Hussein's lawyer, said the judge had apparently opted for a fine, not flogging, to avoid international criticism. "There is a general sentiment in the world that flogging is humiliating."

Even before the ruling, Hussein said she would refuse any fine. "I won't pay, as a matter of principle," she said. "I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail."

It is not the first time Sudanese courts have raised an outcry. In 2007, a British teacher was charged with insulting Islam after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad in a class project, which some radical clerics called an insult to Islam's prophet. She was convicted and sentenced to 15 days in prison, though not the possible sentence of 40 lashes - again, an apparent move to avoid worsening international criticism. She then received a presidential pardon and returned to Britain.

Hussein's case has raised a string of condemnations by international human rights groups, and Hussein has sought to draw attention to Sudan's morality laws.

Amnesty International called on the Sudanese government to withdraw the charges against Hussein and repeal the law which justifies such "abhorrent" penalties. The London-based group said Friday that the law allowing flogging is state-sanctioned torture.

It pointed to an incident in 2003 when eight women were flogged in public with plastic and wire whips, reportedly leaving permanent scars on the women. The women had been picnicking with male friends.

Human rights and political groups in Sudan say the law is in violation of the 2005 constitution drafted after a peace deal ended two decades of war between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south Sudan.

Government spokesman Rabie Abdel Attie said Monday that many women in Sudan wear trousers in government offices and institutions. He said there may be other issues surrounding Hussein's case that led to her arrest, but he refused to elaborate on what they might be.

"These courts are not convened without a crime. Lubna was convicted and she should respect the law," he said.