Case No.:

(AC-CP-294-1959)

Court:

Court of Appeal

Issue No.:

1960

Principles

·  Criminal law—Murder—Sudan Penal Code. s. 251 of private defence, Sudan Penal Code, ss. 55. 61—Exceeding right of private defence, Sudan Penal Code. S. 249 (2)—Homicide not amounting to murder, Sudan Penal Code, s. 253

It is not exceeding the right of private defence if a woman kills her attacker during a savage attempt to rape.

Judgment

(COURT OF APPEAL)

SUDAN GOVERNMENT v. AJOK AGANY YOM

(AC-CP-294-1959)

Reference for confirmation

The accused was a married woman. The deceased was the village dresser. On the night of May 9, 1959, the deceased went to the accused’s house. Her husband was a road s’upervisor and was away on duty at the time. The deceased asked accused to have intercourse with him but she refused. The deceased threatened accused with a knife and attempted to rape her. The accused snatched the knife from his hand and stabbed him mortally.

A Major Court at Wau found the accused not guilty of murder but guilty of homicide not amounting to murder under section 253 of the Sudan Penal Code on the ground that the accused exceeded her right of private defence.

Abdel. Mageed Imam J. (by authority of the Chief Justice): —I refuse confirmation of both finding and sentence and order that the accused be set at liberty at once. This is a simple case of self-defence under Sudan Penal Code, s. 61. The accused had the right to defend her chastity from the savage attacks of a persistent drunken brute who wanted to force her will and actually injured her with a knife, the same knife with which he met his death, and would have stopped at nothing towards gratifying his lust In the circumstances, as I see it, she did not exceed her right. Her act of killing the deceased is no offence under Sudan Penal Code, S. 55.

                                                                                     (conviction quashed)