By Andrew Heavens Andrew Heavens – Mon Sep 7, 9:38 am ET

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – A Sudanese woman was found guilty of indecency and fined on Monday for wearing trousers in a case that has attracted worldwide attention, but she will be spared lashes, an official who attended the trial said.

The woman, Lubna Hussein, was arrested at a party in July with 12 other women and had faced the possibility of 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. The court ordered her to pay a fine of 500 pounds ($209) or face a month in jail.

Hussein's case was seen as a test of Sudan's Islamic decency regulations, which many women activists say are vague and give individual police officers undue latitude to determine what is acceptable clothing for women.

A former reporter who was working for the United Nations at the time of her arrest, Hussein has publicized her case, posing in loose trousers for photos and calling for media support.

Reached by telephone after the verdict, Hussein said she would refuse to pay the fine: "I will not pay the money, and I will go to prison."

Defense lawyer Nabil Adib Abdalla has previously said the law on indecent dress was so wide it contravened Hussein's right to a fair trial.

"She was found guilty, but we know she is not guilty , This is a clear violation of the constitution, of women's rights, and the peace agreement," said Yasser Arman, a government official who attended the trial and is also a senior member of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

Ten of the other women arrested with Hussein have pleaded guilty and have been whipped, Hussein previously said.

PROTESTS AT COURT

Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan, where there is a large cultural gap between the mostly Muslim and Arab-oriented north and the mainly Christian south. The cases prompted scores of women to gather near the court ahead of the verdict to lend support to Hussein.

Hussein argued her clothes, a pair of green slacks that she also wore to her first court appearance, were respectable and that she did not break the law.

"Lubna has given us a chance. She is very brave. Thousands of girls have been beaten since the 1990s, but Lubna is the first one not to keep silent," protester Sawsan Hassan el-Showaya told Reuters before the verdict.

But scuffles erupted at the protest before the court session even began between the women and Islamists, who shouted religious slogans and denounced Hussein and her supporters as prostitutes and demanded a harsh punishment for Hussein.

Riot police quickly cleared the scene, beating some protesters with batons. Around 40 women protesters were detained.

Hussein has said she resigned from her U.N. job to give up any legal immunity so she could continue with the case, prove her innocence and challenge the decency law.

U.N. officials have said the United Nations told Sudan that Hussein was immune from legal proceedings as she was a U.N. employee at the time of her arrest. But the case was allowed to proceed after Sudan's foreign ministry advised the court that Hussein was not immune.

(Reporting by Andrew Heavens and Khalid Abdel Aziz; Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

What is wrong with these people? Piss on Islam.

ha ha, lucky girl. they could have wired her yansh

MrCrackles:

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Dude shut the fuc.k up, that wasnt necessary!

Shut the fuc.k up too, were they not trying to promote islamic ideas and what the koran says? They did what they did all because they were trying to enforce the laws of the koran.

"The sword of Mahomet, and the coran (koran) are the most stubborn ennemies of Civilization, Liberty, and Truth, which the world has yet known."

- W. Muir

Is this a matter we have to crack our head about? Its according to their Sharia law so leave them to their tale.

@ Baba,

Read ur bible very well and u Will see the same. Is it not written in the bible that ladies should not put on men's wearings and verse verse.

If u people choose to be disobedience children disobeying the bible muslims will follow the sayings of their book.

As for the woman fined, A law will remain a law, since she knew the law why did u disobey?If u cant abide by the law then u go to where there is no law.
Where there is no law no sin.

I know its in Africa that they'll go ahead and beat up the woman for wearing trousers.

In Malaysia where a woman was sentenced to be whipped for drinking or buying beer, they eventually pardoned her.

Women do not actually wear men's trousers. They wear momen's trousers which are sown purposefully for women. My sisters do not wear my trousers nor do I wear theirs.
In my own personal opinion, it is very wrong to arrest women who wear trousers without verification of it. For example mens or gents.

It may take a long time, but these stupid laws will eventually go.

Its nothing but gender apartheid.

The struggle will go on, and enlightenment will prevail.

Discriminatory Bastards.

The worst part is that you will find women passionately defending Islam even when the Koran says that the women and intellectually deficient and less than men, I don't blame them though they have been indoctrinated to believe in all these lies since childhood and it has now become not only their way of life but a fact of life to them.

I can tolerate any religion but islam is pure shite to me.
Just a bunch of heartless savage morons threatening to pull us back to the stone age. I honestly fail to understand why a sane person will subscribe to such barbaric faith. . . . It just shows how useless some people are intellectually.