Family to go on trial after woman stoned to death

The father of a pregnant Pakistani woman who was stoned to death, and four other men, have been charged with killing her after she married against the family’s wishes. Their trial is set to begin today, police said.

Farzana Parveen, 25, was killed on May 27 before a crowd of onlookers near a downtown courthouse in the eastern city of Lahore. A mob beat her with bricks and killed her as she was on her way to court to contest an abduction case her family had filed against her husband.

A Pakistani court indicted her father, two brothers, a cousin and a man who claimed he had been married to Parveen, on charges of murder and torture. All five men pleaded not guilty, according to Mian Zulfiqar, the police investigator.