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Sudan:Naija football player to get 40 lashes for drunk driving

Posted by Choochoo Sports Book on November 14, 2009 at 1:21am
A Nigerian football star on Thursday said he had been sentenced to 40 lashes in Sudan after being wrongly convicted of drunk driving in Khartoum.advertisement
NEWSBLOGSTODAY..NAIJA POLITICS TODAY
lagos..Port-Harcourt..Abuja..Kaduna.. Owerri..Edo.. AkwaIbom..Ibadan..Enugu
Stephen Worgu, who signed a reported multi-million dollar contract with Omdurman Club, Al Merreikh, last year, said he was innocent and determined to win an appeal against the sentence."I am not guilty of this crime...I can't imagine myself being flogged," he told reporters in his Khartoum flat.It was the latest in a series of high-profile cases where Sudan's brand of Islamic law has come under the spotlight. A British teacher was jailed after letting her class name a teddy bear Mohammad in 2007 and a Sudanese journalist was imprisoned in September after being convicted of indecency for wearing trousers. Both women had faced a maximum sentence of flogging.Drinking alcohol is banned under the sharia law enforced in Muslim north Sudan. Men found guilty are routinely beaten in public outside court rooms, while women are generally punished in private.Worgu, 20, said he was stopped by police driving home late from dinner at a friend's house in August.He said he was taken to a police station and briefly questioned, then later told to attend court this week."I was trying to make myself heard to the judge ... saying he (the policeman) didn't make any medical test. He didn't find me with any drink."He said the officers told the court they had smelled the home-brewed spirit aragi on his breath, but insisted he had never heard of the drink. "My lawyer was saying, 'This guy, he makes good money. How can he drink aragi? Aragi is sold for one pound."
Tags: 40, Sudan:Naija, driving, drunk, football, for, get, lashes, player, to
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