Gang-rape victim appeals for attackers to be executed

FAR from the dusty village where she was brutally assaulted three years ago on the orders of a tribal council, Pakistani rape victim Mukhtar Mai appeared before the Supreme Court in Islamabad yesterday.

She was demanding the reinstatement of death sentences for five of her attackers.

Ms Mai has won international praise for speaking out over the June 2002 gang rape but was recently barred by President Gen Pervez Musharraf from visiting the US because he was concerned it would create bad publicity for Pakistan. The government lifted the ban last week after Washington protested.

Ms Mai, aged 36, who has complained of the authorities' restrictions on her movements, arrived from her home in Meerwala, a village about 350 miles south-west of Islamabad, to attend yesterday's hearing at the gleaming white court building in Islamabad, which was under heavy police guard. Dozens of rights activists congregated in a show of support, along with diplomats.

Ms Mai, appearing happy and relaxed, said she expected the nation's highest court would uphold the original verdict in the case.

"I am expecting the Supreme Court to give the same kind of ruling," Ms Mai, wearing a yellow shawl over her head, told reporters outside the court.

In June 2002, a council of elders in Meerwala ordered Ms Mai's gang rape as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's alleged affair with another woman - a brutal example of the kind of tribal justice still meted out in parts of Pakistan. Ms Mai said the allegation was fabricated to cover up a sexual assault against the boy by men from the woman's Mastoi clan.

Eschewing a culture of shame that often surrounds rape victims in Pakistan, Ms Mai spoke out, leading to the conviction of six men, who were sentenced to death. Eight others were acquitted. But in March, the High Court overturned the convictions of five of the men, and reduced the death sentence of the sixth to life in prison, citing a lack of evidence.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer for Ms Mai, said she also was appealing the eight men's acquittals.

At yesterday's hearing, a three-member panel of judges adjourned the court until today after hearing initial arguments on whether Pakistan's top Islamic court - the Federal Shariat Court - had the jurisdiction to give a ruling in the case.

In March, the Islamic court reinstated the convictions of the six men, overturning the High Court verdict. But days later the Supreme Court intervened and declared that ruling unconstitutional and decided to hear Ms Mai's appeal.

Since her assault, Ms Mai has become a prominent women's rights activist. Although she grew up illiterate, Ms Mai has helped set up a school for girls in her village, mainly with donations from supporters, many of them in the US.

Before leaving for Islamabad on Sunday, Ms Mai reiterated complaints that police were shadowing her, which authorities claim is for her own protection.

"Are free people like this? I am not being allowed to speak with people," she told reporters at the airport in the city of Multan, surrounded by police.

Ms Mai had planned to travel to the US at the invitation of a private group to talk about her case earlier this month, but was blocked by the Pakistan government.