Sudan's Lubna Hussein prefers jail over apology

Lubna Hussein, convicted in Sudan for wearing a trouser in public, on Tuesday said she would not pay $200 fine and instead face a prison sentence.

A defiant Lubna, who is a former journalist, was arrested on July 3 along with 12 other women for violating Sudan's public indecency law by wearing trousers outdoors. While she wasn't flogged, Lubna was asked to pay a fine of $200.

But she has stood her ground, saying she won't pay a penny in protest against the nation's strict laws on women's dressing. "Send me to jail but I won't apologise," the 34-year-old journalist said.

"Lubna has stated that she doesn't want to pay the money, the bill, and she wants to go to prison in order to take the case further up and up and in my opinion if she paid the money she would not be in prison," said Manal Awad, lawyer part of Lubna Hussein's defence team.

The case has made headlines in Sudan and around the world and Lubna says she hopes to rally world opinion against the country's morality laws based on a strict interpretation of Islam.

And she might be succeeding as Amnesty International has called on the Sudanese government to repeal these strict laws.

While human rights and political groups in Sudan say the law is in violation of the 2005 constitution drafted after a peace deal ended two decades of war.