WRAP Supreme Court hears appeal of high profile rape victim

Описание: (27 Jun 2005)

Islamabad
1. Exterior of Supreme Court of Pakistan with security guards wearing black shirts
2. Group shot of security guards
3. Mukhtar Mai's car convoy leaving Supreme Court
4. Cutaway of cameraman
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Aitazaz Ahsan, Mukhtar Mai's Lawyer:
"Of course we have hope that justice will be done in the Supreme Court. That is why we are appealing to the Supreme Court. But today preliminary issues only were taken up and the matter will again be taken up first thing tomorrow morning so I think we are seeking a re-appraisement of the evidence from the supreme court and we hope to get that done."
6. Zoom into Mai sitting in back seat of car with other women
7. Group of Photographers around Mukhtar Mai car
8. Mukhtar Mai sitting in the car
9. Mukhtar Mai's car leaving

File
Meerwala, Punjab province - 6 July 2002
10. Various of village where alleged rape took place
11. Mai and her family
12. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Mukhtar Mai, alleged Rape Victim:
"I was dragged away by the people, I begged them not to do this, I begged them to stop, but they would not. My uncle and my father tried to stop them but they did not stop."
15. Mai with father crying
16. Mai's father wiping tears
17. Mai walking with her brother Shakoor

File
Dera Ghazi Khan - 26 July 2002
18. Various accused men in chains and handcuffs surrounded by police at court house
19. Accused men led into police van

STORY:

A Pakistani woman who was gang-raped on the orders of a village council launched an appeal Monday before Pakistan's Supreme Court, against a ruling that acquitted five of her alleged attackers.

A three-member panel of judges adjourned Mukhtar Mai's court case until Tuesday after hearing initial arguments on whether Pakistan's top Islamic court - Federal Shariat Court - had the jurisdiction to give a ruling in the case.

"We have hope that justice will be done in the supreme court," said Aitazaz Ahsan, Mukhtar Mai's Lawyer.

The assaults on 36-year-old Mai in June 2002, were ordered by the tribal council to punish her family for her 13 year old brother's alleged affair with a woman from a higher caste clan called the Mastois.

During the original trial, Mai testified in court of how she begged the Mastoi men not to rape her, pleading with them that she had done nothing to harm their family.

The prosecution alleged that the Mastoi family fabricated the story to cover up another incident in which the rape victim's brother, Shakoor, was sodomised by Mastoi men.

Mai and her family are from the Gujar tribe, considered a lower class than the Mastoi group.

The trial ended with six men sentenced to death by hanging over the attack, and eight others were acquitted.

But in March the High Court overturned the convictions of five and reduced the death sentence of the sixth to life in prison, citing a lack of evidence.

Mai's lawyers said she also was appealing the verdicts for the eight men who were acquitted in trial court.

Police say the tribal verdict was illegal. But Pakistan has a tradition of tribal justice in which crimes or affronts to dignity are punished outside the framework of the country's judicial system.

Mai has won international praise for speaking out against her assault that highlighted brutal forms of tribal justice still prevalent in parts of Pakistan, and activists have accused the government of trying to pressure her into silence.


On Monday, Mai said the government had returned her passport, but she hadn't yet decided if she again planned to travel abroad.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...