ISLAMIC COURT IN PAKISTAN REINSTATES CONVICTIONS IN RAPE CASE

By Salman Masood, New York Times, March 11, 2005

SLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 11 - Pakistan's top Islamic court today reversed a High Court decision to overturn the convictions of five men for a gang rape approved by a village council, according to lawyers in the case.

The Federal Shariah court, which has jurisdiction over cases involving Islamic law, including sex offenses, ruled that the High Court was not empowered to hear appeals in the case. The Islamic court ordered the victim, Mukhtar Mai, and all six men convicted of assaulting her to attend a new hearing, according to Ramzan Khalid Joya, Ms. Mai's lawyer.

Ms. Mai, now in her early 30's, was ordered to be gang-raped in June 2002 by a village council in Meerwala, a dusty farming village in southern part of Punjab Province. The rape was decreed as a punishment for the alleged illicit sexual relations of her younger brother with a woman of a rival tribe, the Mastoi.

Fourteen men were charged in the case, which jolted Pakistan and was widely covered by international news organizations. Six of the men - the leader of the village council, a council member and the four men accused of carrying out the rape - were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2002.

But on March 3, the country's High Court overturned the death sentences of the five of the men and commuted the death sentence of the sixth into a life term in prison.

That judgment met with bitter protests by human rights advocates in the country and abroad. Hundreds of women demonstrated, decrying the court's decision and rallying behind Ms. Mai.

Today, many said they were pleased with the Shariah court's intervention.

"We are quite pleased with the development, and it's a sigh of relief for now, as the earlier judgment was unfair and biased," said Dr. Farzana Bari, a women's rights activist based in Islamabad. "Because of pressure from the civil society, the government realized that there should be some damage control."

Ms. Mai, who has received widespread praise for her decision to speak out after the rape and for setting up of schools in her native village, was reported to be overjoyed at the ruling today. "It has breathed a new life in me," Reuters quoted her as saying.