Pakistanis Rearrested in Rape Case; Court to Rule

Four men who were sentenced to death for gang-raping a woman and later freed on bail, triggering an outcry from human rights activists, have been arrested again, police said Friday.

The men were convicted nearly three years ago of raping Mukhtar Mai, 33, on orders from a village council to punish her family for her younger brother’s alleged illicit affair.

The four walked out of jail Tuesday after a judge granted them bail, following an appeals court decision this month overturning their convictions. That prompted a mass protest by women in Multan, the nearest city to Mai’s village of Meerwala in eastern Punjab province.

Mai, who has said she fears retaliation if the men remain free, met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday in the capital, Islamabad, and asked him to order the men’s arrests, said Kashmala Tariq, a lawmaker who accompanied her.

However, police already had arrested the men late Thursday after receiving orders from provincial authorities, said Ahsan Mahboob, a local police official. It was not immediately known on what grounds the four were detained this time, but Mahboob said they would remain in custody pending a decision by the Supreme Court. The high court intervened last week, giving the parties a week to submit legal documents.

After the appeals court ruling, Pakistan’s highest Islamic court reinstated the convictions, saying the lower court had no jurisdiction. The Federal Shariat Court works separately from the regular legal system but has the power to overturn decisions involving Islamic law, such as in cases of rape, adultery and sometimes murder.

The four men were among six sentenced to death in August 2002 for raping Mai. A fifth, who also had his conviction overturned by the appeals court, was not granted bail. The sixth had his death sentence reduced to life in prison.