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Sudan’s judiciary has announced a partial lifting on the country’s decades-old prohibition against the sale and consumption of alcohol. The news came alongside a wave of reforms aimed at whittling away the some of the religiously motivated legal restrictions that characterized the rule of former President Omar al-Bashir.

Justice Minister Nasur Aldin Abdul Bari explained the changes in a televised interview Saturday, explaining that the death penalty for apostasy and whipping as a juridical punishment were also abolished. 

Under the new rules, Sudan’s Christians, who make up less than 2% of the country’s population will be, able to import alcohol from abroad to sell and drink, the justice minister said.

The news came just one day after Sudan criminalized female genital mutilation, a practice that the UN estimates affects 9 in 10 girls in the country.

“We are keen to demolish any kind of discrimination that was enacted by the old regime and to move toward equality of citizenship and a democratic transformation,” Abdul Bari said

Bashir’s government, which ruled from 1989, was toppled with help from the military amid a popular uprising last April. The transitional government that replaced him has since been faced with mounting pressure from the streets to hasten the pace of reforms.