<p>The family of Silva Kashif, 16, plans to sue the police and the judge, said attorney Azhari al-Hajj who insisted that the verdict was in violation of the Sudanese law because the girl is a minor. <br /><br />Kashif “is a minor, not a Muslim and did not have the right to get in touch with her parents” before the verdict was served, Hajj told AFP.<br /><br />“These are violations of the law and that is why we plan on suing the police and the judge,” the lawyer added.<br /><br />Kashif was strolling in a south Khartoum neighbourhood earlier this month wearing a knee-length skirt when a policeman arrested her and marched her to court. She was sentenced on November 21.<br /><br />“The judge sentenced her to 50 lashes and she was immediately flogged. The whole thing lasted 30 minutes,” said Hajj, who is also a human rights activist. Sudan applies Islamic law in the Muslim north but it is not in force in the Christian and semi-autonomous south, which fought a two-decade war with the north that ended in 2005.<br /><br />Kashif was the latest person targeted in Sudan on charges of violating a law against public indecency.<br /><br />Kashif’s ordeal follows the high profile case of Lubna Hussein, a woman journalist who was sentenced to 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. Hussein’s sentence was reduced to a fine, and she is now lobbying to change the morality laws.</p>
<p>The family of Silva Kashif, 16, plans to sue the police and the judge, said attorney Azhari al-Hajj who insisted that the verdict was in violation of the Sudanese law because the girl is a minor. <br /><br />Kashif “is a minor, not a Muslim and did not have the right to get in touch with her parents” before the verdict was served, Hajj told AFP.<br /><br />“These are violations of the law and that is why we plan on suing the police and the judge,” the lawyer added.<br /><br />Kashif was strolling in a south Khartoum neighbourhood earlier this month wearing a knee-length skirt when a policeman arrested her and marched her to court. She was sentenced on November 21.<br /><br />“The judge sentenced her to 50 lashes and she was immediately flogged. The whole thing lasted 30 minutes,” said Hajj, who is also a human rights activist. Sudan applies Islamic law in the Muslim north but it is not in force in the Christian and semi-autonomous south, which fought a two-decade war with the north that ended in 2005.<br /><br />Kashif was the latest person targeted in Sudan on charges of violating a law against public indecency.<br /><br />Kashif’s ordeal follows the high profile case of Lubna Hussein, a woman journalist who was sentenced to 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. Hussein’s sentence was reduced to a fine, and she is now lobbying to change the morality laws.</p>