I received the following over e-mail and thought it was worth posting up here. Again, I did not write it; I am posting it simply to let people know about this injustice.

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Pakistan court orders 12 men freed in gang rape
2 hours, 57 minutes ago


LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani court on
Friday ordered the release next week of 12 men
connected to a notorious gang-rape case, including six
convicted of the crime, court officials said.

The men, detained in connection with the 2002 rape of
Mukhataran Mai, were ordered to be freed by the high
court in the central province of Punjab, officials of
the court said.

Authorities had petitioned a review board of the court
to extend the detention of the 12, which expires next
Monday, but the court rejected the plea, the officials
said.

It was the latest twist in a case that provoked an
outcry in Pakistan and focused international attention
on the treatment of women in the country, particularly
in rural areas, where sometimes brutal tribal customs
hold sway.

The original trial before an anti-terrorism court in
2002 found that Mai was gang-raped on the orders of a
traditional village council after her brother -- who
was 12 at the time -- was judged to have offended the
honor of a powerful clan by befriending a woman from
their tribe.

Six men were originally convicted of the crime and
sentenced to death, but five were later acquitted on
appeal to the Punjab provincial court, which cited a
lack of evidence. A sixth man had his death sentence
commuted to life imprisonment.

The provincial government subsequently intervened and
ordered that the men be detained for three months
pending the outcome of an appeal by the victim against
the acquittal. Six men who served on the village
council were detained at the same time.

"The review board has held that there is no
justification for the detention of these people and
has ordered their release after depositing surety
bonds of 50,000 rupees ($840) from each of them,"
Malik Saleem, a lawyer for the 12 men, told Reuters.

Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat declined to comment
on the decision.

Mai expressed fears for her life after the provincial
high court announced the acquittals in March.

Gang rapes and honor killings are common in
feudalistic rural Pakistan. In most cases the
perpetrators go free because of incompetent police
investigations and flaws in the legal system, which
have been highlighted in the current case.

President Pervez Musharraf, who has been trying to
project Pakistan as a moderate and progressive Muslim
nation, has taken a personal interest in the case,
saying it was tarnishing the country's image overseas.