Rape victim fearful after court orders suspects'' release

Описание: (5 Mar 2005)
1. Rape victim Mukhtar Mai surrounded by supporters and media
2. News conference
3. Mai
4. Media
5. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Mukhtar Mai, Rape Victim:
"The day before yesterday there was a decision. It was the wrong decision and I''m very upset. We will go to the Supreme Court to lodge an appeal and my hope is that God willing, I will have your (the media''s) support."
6. News conference
7. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Mukhtar Mai, Rape Victim:
"The first time round the court awarded them the death penalty. That''s what I want again now."
8. Media
9. Mai walking through hotel lobby surrounded by media
10. Media and civil society workers in room
11.SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Farzana Bari, Social Activist:
"We have a lot more faith that the Supreme Court might dispense the justice to her, but I think the other very necessary conditions will be that the entire civil society continues to provide her support, keep her case alive, and then I think she can stand a better chance to get justice."
12. Mai surrounded by media

STORYLINE:

A woman gang-raped in Pakistan in a retaliatory "honour" attack said on Saturday she would appeal a court''s decision to order the release from prison of several of the alleged perpetrators.

Mukhtar Mai said she is fearful won''t be safe in her village of Meerwala - 565 kilometres (350 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad - where the crime took place.

In June 2002 Mai was raped by four men on the orders of a village council that wanted to punish her family.

The assault was ordered after Mai''s brother was accused of having sex with a woman from a more prominent family, though Mai''s family says the allegations were fabricated to cover up a sex assault against the boy by several men.

Mai''s story captured global attention and prompted President General Pervez Musharraf to order the arrest of the culprits.

Within days six men were behind bars, and a judge sentenced them to death after finding them guilty.

However, on Thursday an appeals court in Multan in Pakistan''s eastern Punjab province ordered the release of five of the men because of a lack of evidence.

The other had his death sentence reduced to life in prison.

Mai told a news conference in Islamabad that she had asked her lawyer to challenge the court verdict in Supreme Court of Pakistan and called for media attention to her continuing fight for justice.

Mai, a 33-year-old school teacher, said she would not leave her village and vowed to appeal the court''s decision.

Mai is from the Gujar clan. The attackers were from a clan considered socially higher, called Mastoi.

She denied her 13-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor had relations with the Mastoi woman, saying the clan fabricated the story to cover up another incident, in which her brother was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mastoi men.

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