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Pakistan Rape Victim Seeks Protection After Court Orders Release of Alleged Rapists
Pakistan Rape Victim Seeks Protection After Court Orders Release of Alleged Rapists
By KHALID TANVEER
The Associated Press
Mar. 5, 2005 - A woman who drew international attention after being gang-raped in Pakistan in a retaliatory "honor" attack said Saturday she is fearful after several of the alleged perpetrators were ordered released from prison.
Mukhtar Mai in June 2002 was raped by four men on the orders of a village council that wanted to punish her family.
The assault was ordered after Mai's brother was accused of having sex with a woman from a more prominent family, though Mai's family says the allegations were fabricated to cover up a sex assault against the boy by several men.
Mai's story captured global attention and prompted President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to order the arrest of the culprits. Within days six men were behind bars, and a judge sentenced them to death after finding them guilty.
On Thursday, however, an appeals court in Multan in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province ordered the release of five of the men because of a lack of evidence. The other had his death sentence reduced to life in prison.
While the five have yet to be released, Mai said she won't be safe in her village of Meerwala 350 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad where the crime took place.
"I fear that those who were awarded death sentences can take any step after their release," a tearful Mai told The Associated Press, urging the government to provide her protection.
Mai, a 33-year-old school teacher, said she would not leave her village and vowed to appeal the court's decision.
"I will fight a legal battle to death. I want all those people who molested me hanged," she said.
Mai is from the Gujar clan. The attackers were from a clan considered socially higher, called Mastoi.
She denied her 13-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor had relations with the Mastoi woman, saying the clan fabricated the story to cover up another incident, in which her brother was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mastoi men.
Mai said she cannot forget what happened on June 22, 2002, when they came to her house and accused Shakoor. Hours later, a village council summoned her father.
"I was worried about my brother, so I went there to see the proceedings," she said. "My father was defending Shakoor when a man caught me and started taking me to a house. I cried and asked for help. Some armed men caught my father. Later, four men took turns raping me and then threw me out of that house."
She said she would never forgive the people who saw her being dragged away but did nothing to help. "I heard laughter, and weeping there helplessly was only one man my father," she said.
Also Saturday, Mai told a news conference in Islamabad that she had asked her lawyer to challenge the court verdict in Supreme Court of Pakistan. "My case is not only in Pakistan court, but also in the court of God," she said.
"I hope that the Supreme Court of Pakistan will give me justice," Mai said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright ? 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures
___________________________________ __
Pakistan rape trial adjourned
Tuesday, 27 August, 2002, 10:08 GMT 11:08 UK
(Picture caption: Mukhtaran Bibi: Forced to walk home half-naked)
The trial in Pakistan of 14 men accused over the alleged gang rape of a woman on the orders of a vilage council has been adjourned.
A verdict is now expected on Saturday.
Four of the men - who are accused of rape - face the death penalty, while the others could be given prison sentences for allegedly authorising the act.
For security reasons, the trial is being held behind closed doors in a special anti-terrorism court in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan, in the Muzaffargarh area 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Islamabad.
The case caused outrage in Pakistan and throughout the world in recent weeks when it was claimed that the woman, Mukhtaran Bibi, had been raped as a "punishment" for her teenage brother's alleged affair with a woman of another tribe.
The rape was to avenge the "insult" caused to a family of the Mastoi tribe, considered by locals as a tribe of higher social standing than that of the alleged victim and her brother, who are from the Gujjar tribe.
In many of Pakistan's remote areas "panchyat" tribal councils, made up of community elders, still work like a lawful body, judging cases ranging from animal theft or tribal rivalry to murder.
Pleas for mercy
Mukhtaran Bibi's brother, Abdul Shakoor, said the story of his affair was concocted to cover up the fact that he had been sodomised by three men earlier in the day and threatened to report the incident.
Mukhtaran Bibi testified that when she apologised to the council, made up of village elders in Punjab's Muzaffargarh area, one man said she should be pardoned but another immediately insisted that she should be raped.
She described begging the council to save her, but they took no notice and four men raped her while hundreds of villagers did nothing to stop the assault.
Afterwards, Mukhtaran Bibi said she was forced to walk home half-naked in full public view, covered only with a piece of cloth.
Despite the national outrage, a human rights organisation recently reported that 150 rapes have taken place in the same area of southern Punjab in the last six months alone.
news.bbc.co.uk
By KHALID TANVEER
The Associated Press
Mar. 5, 2005 - A woman who drew international attention after being gang-raped in Pakistan in a retaliatory "honor" attack said Saturday she is fearful after several of the alleged perpetrators were ordered released from prison.
Mukhtar Mai in June 2002 was raped by four men on the orders of a village council that wanted to punish her family.
The assault was ordered after Mai's brother was accused of having sex with a woman from a more prominent family, though Mai's family says the allegations were fabricated to cover up a sex assault against the boy by several men.
Mai's story captured global attention and prompted President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to order the arrest of the culprits. Within days six men were behind bars, and a judge sentenced them to death after finding them guilty.
On Thursday, however, an appeals court in Multan in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province ordered the release of five of the men because of a lack of evidence. The other had his death sentence reduced to life in prison.
While the five have yet to be released, Mai said she won't be safe in her village of Meerwala 350 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad where the crime took place.
"I fear that those who were awarded death sentences can take any step after their release," a tearful Mai told The Associated Press, urging the government to provide her protection.
Mai, a 33-year-old school teacher, said she would not leave her village and vowed to appeal the court's decision.
"I will fight a legal battle to death. I want all those people who molested me hanged," she said.
Mai is from the Gujar clan. The attackers were from a clan considered socially higher, called Mastoi.
She denied her 13-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor had relations with the Mastoi woman, saying the clan fabricated the story to cover up another incident, in which her brother was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mastoi men.
Mai said she cannot forget what happened on June 22, 2002, when they came to her house and accused Shakoor. Hours later, a village council summoned her father.
"I was worried about my brother, so I went there to see the proceedings," she said. "My father was defending Shakoor when a man caught me and started taking me to a house. I cried and asked for help. Some armed men caught my father. Later, four men took turns raping me and then threw me out of that house."
She said she would never forgive the people who saw her being dragged away but did nothing to help. "I heard laughter, and weeping there helplessly was only one man my father," she said.
Also Saturday, Mai told a news conference in Islamabad that she had asked her lawyer to challenge the court verdict in Supreme Court of Pakistan. "My case is not only in Pakistan court, but also in the court of God," she said.
"I hope that the Supreme Court of Pakistan will give me justice," Mai said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright ? 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures
___________________________________ __
Pakistan rape trial adjourned
Tuesday, 27 August, 2002, 10:08 GMT 11:08 UK
(Picture caption: Mukhtaran Bibi: Forced to walk home half-naked)
The trial in Pakistan of 14 men accused over the alleged gang rape of a woman on the orders of a vilage council has been adjourned.
A verdict is now expected on Saturday.
Four of the men - who are accused of rape - face the death penalty, while the others could be given prison sentences for allegedly authorising the act.
For security reasons, the trial is being held behind closed doors in a special anti-terrorism court in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan, in the Muzaffargarh area 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Islamabad.
The case caused outrage in Pakistan and throughout the world in recent weeks when it was claimed that the woman, Mukhtaran Bibi, had been raped as a "punishment" for her teenage brother's alleged affair with a woman of another tribe.
The rape was to avenge the "insult" caused to a family of the Mastoi tribe, considered by locals as a tribe of higher social standing than that of the alleged victim and her brother, who are from the Gujjar tribe.
In many of Pakistan's remote areas "panchyat" tribal councils, made up of community elders, still work like a lawful body, judging cases ranging from animal theft or tribal rivalry to murder.
Pleas for mercy
Mukhtaran Bibi's brother, Abdul Shakoor, said the story of his affair was concocted to cover up the fact that he had been sodomised by three men earlier in the day and threatened to report the incident.
Mukhtaran Bibi testified that when she apologised to the council, made up of village elders in Punjab's Muzaffargarh area, one man said she should be pardoned but another immediately insisted that she should be raped.
She described begging the council to save her, but they took no notice and four men raped her while hundreds of villagers did nothing to stop the assault.
Afterwards, Mukhtaran Bibi said she was forced to walk home half-naked in full public view, covered only with a piece of cloth.
Despite the national outrage, a human rights organisation recently reported that 150 rapes have taken place in the same area of southern Punjab in the last six months alone.
news.bbc.co.uk