A teenage bride has been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing the man she was forced to marry after he allegedly raped her while his cousins pinned her down.

A court in Sudan handed Noura Hussein, 19, the death penalty after her husband's family refused to accept financial compensation.

Ms Hussein was married against her will to Abdulrahman Hammad at the age of 16 and forced to move in with him last April when she finished high school.

In Sudan the legal age of marriage is ten and marital rape isn't considered a crime (file photo)

Ms Hussein is said to have run away from their shared home last May, which angered Hammad, according to her lawyer Ahmed Sebair.

The husband then allegedly raped her while his male relatives held the 19-year-old down.

When the two were alone the next day and he attempted to rape her again, she managed to grab a knife he had used to threaten her and stabbed him to death with it, according to her lawyer.

That was May 3 last year and Hussein has been in prison since.

Supporters of Ms Hussein flocked to the Criminal Court in Omdurman, Sudan's second-largest city, in protest during the trial

In Sudan the legal age of marriage is ten and marital rape isn't considered a crime.

Supporters of Hussein flocked to the Criminal Court in Omdurman, Sudan's second-largest city, in protest during the trial.

The case has gained widespread attention on social media under the hashtag #JusticeForNoura, with people sending photos from around the world in her support.

Witnesses who attended the proceedings posted online that Ms Hussein's family had abandoned her and she appeared alone during Thursday's sentencing for her earlier murder conviction.

The case has gained widespread attention on social media under the hashtag #JusticeForNoura. An online petition has been started to protest against the court ruling

A Sharia court, which follows Islamic religious law, found Hussein guilty of premeditated murder last month and on Thursday officially sentenced her to death by hanging. Her lawyers have 15 days to appeal.

'Under Sharia law, the husband's family can demand either monetary compensation or death. They chose death and now the death penalty has been handed down,' said Badr Eldin Salah, an activist from the Afrika Youth Movement who was in the court.

'Noura's lawyers say they plan to appeal against the decision, but we also need strong international support from organizations such as the African Union, the United Nations and the European Union to support her.'

Sudan is ranked 165 out of 188 countries on the UN's Gender Inequality Index, which measures how women fare compared to men when it comes to access to health, education, political participation and employment opportunities.

UN Women says violence against women and girls is considered prevalent. The country has not signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and has weak policies in place to protect them.