Pakistani to Appeal Gang-Rape Case

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani woman who was allegedly gang-raped in 2002 on the orders of a tribal council said Saturday that she feared for her safety after a top court overturned the convictions of five of the six men in the attack and ordered them released.

Mukhtaran Mai said she had been raped at the direction of Mastoi tribal elders as punishment for her brother’s affair with a daughter of an influential tribesman.

At a news conference in Islamabad, she said Thursday’s decision by the Lahore High Court, which cited lack of evidence in overturning the convictions, had hurt her badly, and she vowed to appeal.

“I will file an appeal in the Supreme Court, and all my hopes lie with the Supreme Court now,” she said. “Simultaneously my case is in the court of God also.”

Mai said she feared that the released men would harm her and her family. However, she said she would continue to run a school in her village, Meerwala, in southern Punjab province.

“I will not leave the country,” she said. “Where will I go?”

A coalition of human rights activists and women’s rights groups have asked the government to protect Mai. Meanwhile, Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer and leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, has agreed to represent her in the Supreme Court.