Pakistani Court Restores Rape Verdicts

The country’s highest Islamic court on Friday reinstated the convictions of five men who had been sentenced to death for raping a woman on orders from a village council, after a firestorm of criticism over a lower tribunal’s decision to free the men.

The ruling by the Federal Shariat Court was another twist in the case of Mukhtar Mai, a 33-year-old woman who said she was gang-raped in June 2002 after elders in her village ordered the attack as punishment for her brother’s alleged affair with a woman from another family.

Mai denies that her 13-year-old brother ever had illicit relations with the woman.

“We welcome the decision, and we know our case is strong,” said Ramzan Khalid Joya, Mai’s lawyer. Mohammad Yaqub, an attorney for the men, said he had not yet studied the decision and had no comment.

Six men, including the village elder, Faiz Bakhsh Mastoi, were sentenced to death in August 2002, but the sentences of five of them were overturned March 3. The sentence of the sixth man was reduced to life in prison.

Human rights groups in Pakistan and around the world denounced the ruling, and thousands of Pakistani women demonstrated in Multan this week demanding justice and protection for Mai, who said she feared the men would seek revenge if released.

The Canadian envoy to Pakistan visited Mai on Tuesday in Meerwala, a village about 350 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, and donated money to a school Mai runs.

In its decision, the Federal Shariat Court ruled that the Multan tribunal had no authority to hear the case. It said that only the high court could rule on appeals in rape cases.

The Shariat Court works separately from the normal legal system but has the power to overturn decisions involving Islamic law, such as in cases of rape, adultery and sometimes murder.

The court indicated that it would hear the men’s appeal but did not say when. All six remain in jail.

Once the Federal Shariat Court rules, a final appeal from either side can be heard only by a special Shariat branch of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, the highest court in the nation.