The absence of government ministers in the nation is impeding efforts to stop a young Sudanese lady from being stoned to death after being found guilty of adultery.
Since a coup d'état a year ago, Sudan has been governed by a military junta.
The trial was "a joke," a government official agreed, but he or she added, "We don't have a minister who can intercede and demand her release."
Intisar Abdala, the woman's attorney, told the BBC that she hoped the court would now "do the right thing" and free her client as a result of the appeal.
The young woman moved home with her family after divorcing her husband in 2020, but a year later her husband accused her of adultery. A court in the White Nile state of Sudan's Kosti city declared her guilty in June 2022.
The court has now heard her appeal against the conviction, and a decision is pending.
For some hudud offenses, such as adultery and theft, which are listed by Allah in the Quran, the death sentence is still applied in Sudan. They are punishable under Sudanese law by being flogged, having their hands and feet amputated, hanged, or being stoned.
According to human rights organizations, the government never followed through on a 2015 pledge to stop using the death by stoning method of punishment.
The head of the Ministry of Social Development's Violence Against Women Unit, Sulaima Ishaq, told the BBC that she had been trying to convince Khartoum officials that the trial was unfair but had struggled because there were no government ministers present.
Human rights organizations claim the lady, whose identity the BBC is withholding at the family's request, was not provided with access to counsel while she was being held and was unaware of the accusations against her.