July 11, 2020 (Khartoum) Sudan’s transitional government has repealed
Article 126 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates the execution of
those who abandons the religion of Islam.
Meanwhile, a new alternative provision has been adopted to
criminalize atonement, as part of a package of legal amendments called
for by the constitutional document for the transitional period.
The penalty for apostasy remained subject of repeated demands for its
abolition, both internally and externally, as against human rights to
life, but the Bashir regime insisted on it , on the pretext that it
was derived from Islamic law.
Sudanese intellectual, Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, is considered the most
prominent victim of apostasy, as he was executed on January 18, 1985
after what the Nimeiri government considered an apostate from the
Islamic religion, as he had opposed Islamic Sharia laws that were
legislated in September 1983.
However, chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council, Lieutenant
General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, signed the Miscellaneous Amendments
Act (..) of 2020, deals with some reforms provided in the
Constitutional Document related to amending laws related to human
rights and freedoms, particularly the freedom of women and children.