Pakistani Rape Case Goes To High Court

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Pakistani Rape Case Goes to High Court
Victim Says Movement, Speech Restricted

By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Page A08

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 27 -- Ten days after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared her a threat to the country's image, Mukhtar Mai sat prominently in a front-row seat of Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday, still seeking justice after being gang-raped three years ago, allegedly on orders of a tribal council.

The court began hearing arguments Monday on Mai's appeal to reopen the case. In March, a lower court overturned the convictions of five of the six men charged in connection with the rape on the basis of insufficient evidence. The men had been sentenced to death. The sixth man charged had his death sentence converted to life in prison.



Mukhtar Mai arrives at the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Islamabad. A lower court's decision in March to overturn rape convictions of five men charged in her case brought international condemnation. The men have since been rearrested. (By Anjum Naveed -- Associated Press)

"I am expecting the Supreme Court to give the same kind of ruling," Mai, 32, told reporters before entering the courtroom with dozens of supporters.

In an episode that has become a focal point for concerns about violence against women in Pakistan, Mai was attacked in Meerwala, her village in southern Punjab province. The council allegedly ordered the rape to settle a score with Mai's brother, 13, who had been accused of an improper relationship with the sister of one of those accused.

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