A rchive Date
[ 01-09-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Pakistan ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/gangrape_aug31-ap.html
Six sentenced in Pakistani gang-rape trial
Sunday, Sep. 01, 2002
DERA GHAZI KHAN, Pakistan (AP) A judge sentenced six men to death by hanging in the gang-rape of a woman to punish her family a case closely watched by government officials and international human rights groups. Eight men were acquitted in the verdict early Sunday.
Defence lawyer Malik Salim said that he will appeal the decision in a higher court within seven days. "All of the accused should have been acquitted," Salim told The Associated Press. "We will challenge this decision."
Those receiving the death sentence included four accused of the actual rape and two members of a tribal council that ordered the June 22 assault in the village of Meerwala, about 560 kilometres southwest of Islamabad. They also were fined the equivalent of $1,000 Cdn each. The eight who were acquitted were also members of the council.
The council ordered the rape after a high-status clan, the Mastois, accused the victim's brother of having sex with one of their women. The victim's family is from a low-status clan.
In a daylong vigil before the verdict was announced, hundreds of people from the Mastoi clan, mostly relatives of the defendants, stood outside the courthouse in a light rain and prayed for an acquittal.
The victim was not present, but several of her relatives stood outside the court under police guard.
"I am satisfied that the judge has done justice for us," said one of the victim's brothers, Hazoor Bakhsah.
Judge Zulifquar Ali Malik issued the verdict shortly after midnight in his chambers with all 14 defendants present.
The verdicts and sentences were announced outside the courtroom by the prosecutor and defence lawyers. Journalists were not allowed inside.
The conviction was likely to please human rights groups that had strengthened calls for greater central government control in Pakistan's fiercely independent tribal regions, where federal laws are often ignored in favour of clan justice.
Rights advocates say that the number of atrocities against women in Pakistan is increasing. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded an end to punishments by tribal councils.
The 30-year-old victim, a member of the Gujar clan, testified during the nearly monthlong trial that defendant Abdul Khaliq and three others dragged her into a hut and raped her.
The woman testified that the Mastoi's council had ordered the rape to punish her family after one of her brothers had sex with one of their women. Khaliq and the three other rapists, Ghulam Farid, Fayyaz Hussain and Ramzan Bachar, are all members of the Mastoi clan.
The prosecution insisted that the higher-class clan fabricated the story to cover up another incident in which the rape victim's brother was sodomized by Mastoi men. The brother had threatened to report the assault. The family finally went to police June 30 after a local cleric assured them of his support.
But the defence presented a trial witness who testified that the female victim in fact had married Khaliq with the consent of her parents. The prosecution insists no such marriage occurred.
Pakistan has no spousal rape law so Khaliq could have been acquitted had the judge accepted the testimony that they were married.
The two council members sentenced to hang were the ones most vocal in arguing for the "punishment."
During the trial the woman was grilled for three days by the defence and on one occasion she wept when the defence lawyer sought minute details relating to the night when she had been repeatedly raped.
A police officer, Mohammed Iqbal, was suspended by the city police chief for negligence and was under investigation.
The trial was conducted in a special anti-terrorism court, which has the authority to issue decisions quickly. In regular courts, cases can drag on for months or years.
The trial ended Aug. 24 and the Supreme Court had given Malik three weeks to deliver a verdict. In Pakistan, sentences are handed down simultaneously with the verdicts.
The prosecution had sought the death penalty for the four alleged rapists and 10-year prison terms for the 10 tribal council members who allegedly ordered the assault.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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