A SUDANESE court has overturned the death sentence of a 19-year-old woman who killed her husband after he allegedly raped her.

Noura Hussein was instead sentenced to five years in jail, according to her lawyer.

CNN reported that the court ordered her family to pay 337,000 Sudanese pounds ($25,000) in “blood money” to the man’s family.

The case has shone a spotlight on forced child marriage and marital rape in the African country.

A global online campaign, #JusticeforNoura, gained traction and demanded Ms Hussein’s release, with actress Emma Watson, supermodel Naomi Campbell among the celebrities who condemned the death sentence, demanding the conviction be overturned.

Last month, Ms Hussein had been sentenced to death, following her conviction for the murder of her 35-year-old husband after she had been forced into marriage by her family at the age of 16.

When she reportedly refused to consummate the marriage, her husband allegedly called in some family members to hold her down as he raped her.

“On the ninth day his relatives came, his uncle told me to go to the bedroom. I said no so he dragged me by my arm into the bedroom and his cousin slapped me. All of them tore at my clothing. His uncle held me down by my legs and each of the other two held down my arms. He stripped and had me while I wept and screamed. Finally, they left the room. I was bleeding, I slept naked,” Ms Hussein said in a recorded account obtained by CNN.

“The next day he grabbed me, threw me on the bed and tried to climb on top of me. I was fighting back and my hand found a knife under the pillow. We began grappling over the knife. He cut my hand and bit down on my shoulder.”

When he allegedly attempted to do the same thing the next day, she defended herself with a knife and stabbed him to death.

The court accepted Hussein’s version of events.

Girls as young as 10 can enter into a legal marriage in Sudan where marital rape is not a crime.