Pakistani woman gang-raped on the orders of village elders

Justice in Pakistan:

Mukhtaran Bibi thought her nightmare was over when the men who gang-raped her - on orders from village elders - were sentenced to death more than two years ago. But yesterday the nightmare began again.

The victim of Pakistan's most notorious rape case wept bitterly after a court in the southern city of Multan overturned the verdict against three of the four alleged rapists and two tribal elders, and quashed the death sentence against the sixth.

"I am in pain. I will ask my lawyer to challenge this decision," said the 30-year-old woman, who has received several awards for her bravery in testifying against her attackers at a trial in 2002. As five of the men prepared to walk free, dismayed human rights activists said the decision was a blow to the struggle for women's rights in a notoriously male-dominated society.

"Mukhtaran is traumatised, but so are many other people," said IA Rehman of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. Ms Bibi was catapulted to world attention after a panchayat , or tribal council, at the remote Punjabi village of Meerwala in June 2002.

Her 12-year-old brother was accused of having an affair with a woman from the higher-caste Mastoi tribe. In punishment, the elders ordered that Mukhtaran be raped. As several hundred people watched, four men dragged her screaming through a cotton field. Pushing her into a mud-walled house, they assaulted her for more than an hour.

She emerged afterwards with her clothes torn. Her father and brother, who had been forced to wait outside during the ordeal, draped her with a shawl and helped her home.

In the days that followed her first impulse was to commit suicide, she recently told the Guardian. "In this area, there is no law and no justice. A woman is left with one option, and that is to die," she said.

But Ms Bibi took the case to court and, after a tear-filled testimony, six Mastoi men were sentenced to death by hanging in August 2002.

Her plight won international press coverage and promises from government officials for an end to brutal "honour killings" and punishments. It also earned the sympathy of President Pervez Musharraf, who offered her £4,500, 24-hour police protection and a house in the capital, Islamabad.

Government investigators found the accusation against her brother, Shakoor, was false. Instead they found evidence to support his claim that two Mastoi men had sodomised him.

Yesterday a high court judge in Multan overturned the decision against the Mastoi rapists, citing flaws in the prosecution case. Faiz Ahmad, the Mastoi elder who allegedly ordered the rape punishment, and four other men were freed. A sixth man had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

A defence lawyer, Mohammad Salim, told the BBC that justice had been done. "The verdict of the anti-terrorism court in August 2002 was largely influenced by media hype and government pressure," he said.

But Hina Jilani, a supreme court lawyer and women's rights activist, blamed the state for failing to ensure a watertight prosecution.

"The government made tall claims that justice would be done, but the reality has been exposed. Our institutions have allowed impunity to prevail."

In the news:

Rape acquittals show Pakistan's attitude - rights group

Men who were told to 'gang rape' acquitted

Acquittals in Pakistan gang rape

Case of rape for revenge overturned

Pakistan court overturns rape conviction

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*shakes head* This is just...