- Pakistani gang-rape victim Mukhtiar Mai said she was
"elated" with a court decision which saw six men responsible
for the attack sentenced to death by hanging.
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- Speaking exclusively to AFP at her desperately poor home
village in a remote part of central Punjab province, Mai said the court's
verdict had further boosted her already strong faith in God.
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- "I have been praying to Allah that he would grant
me justice, so I feel elated. I feel my sacrifice has not been wasted,"
she said.
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- "What I was subjected to should never happen to
anybody," Mai said.
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- Six men early Sunday were sentenced to death by hanging
for their part in a gang-rape sanctioned by an informal tribal council
in Pakistan in June.
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- Eight others were acquitted in an anti-terrorism court
of the incident, which shocked this Islamic nation of 145 million and sparked
international outrage.
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- Judge Malik Zulfikar Ali announced the verdict after
an eighteen-hour delay at the heavily guarded court in the Punjabi district
capital of Dera Ghazi Khan, 400 kilometres (240 miles) south of Islamabad.
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- Mai said: "I waited till one o'clock in the morning.
My elder brother had gone to the court, but he had not yet returned and
we were really upset.
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- "I was so tired by then that I fell asleep. Then
at 2:30 am my father woke me up. I saw many policemen inside my home and
they all were congratulating us."
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- "I felt elated and I immediately threw my hands
towards the sky and said 'Thank You, Allah. Justice is delivered'."
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- Mai, 30, was raped for more than an hour on June 22 in
a hut in the Punjab village of Meerwala, some 60 kilometres (37 miles)
east of here, to atone for her younger brother's alleged affair with a
sister of one of the rapists.
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- "We are grateful to God. The oppressors have met
their end -- this is truly justice," another brother, Hazoor Baksh,
said.
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- Human rights activists and government officials praised
the guilty verdict but focussed their wrath on the archaic panchayat, or
tribal law, system which continues to operate in rural areas as an alternative
to the costly and overburdened official justice system.
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- "This case has raised a very important issue --
the role of extra judicial tribunal taking law into their own hands and
handing down barbaric punishments," said Afrasiab Khattak, who chairs
the national Human Rights Commission.
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- "The issue will not be over until the state takes
up the larger issue of the role of feudal lords and the treatment of women
in society."
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- Law Minister Khalid Ranjha hailed the decision as the
first time in Pakistan's history that tribal jury members have been punished.
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- "It is a straight message that we are very firm
on these issues," the minister said.
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- But Khattak warned against complacency.
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- "We should not be complacent as there are more such
cases of many unknown women whose voices have not been heard," he
told AFP.
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- Chief defence counsel Malik Saleem vowed to appeal the
decision this week, accusing the court of caving in to government pressure.
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- "This judgment has been delivered under duress.
The judge was clearly under pressure from the media, the government and
the Supreme Court," he fumed after the verdict.
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