Gang rape appeal to consider execution

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani woman gang raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council says she hopes the country's Supreme Court will reimpose death sentences on the men accused of attacking her.

The court has begun an appeal by Mukhtaran Mai against the acquittal of five of six men convicted of the assault.

The woman's battle for justice has become a serious embarrassment to the President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf.

While Musharraf was visiting New Zealand this month, his Government tried to gag Mai, the Guardian newspaper reports.

Two weeks ago she was placed on Musharraf's notorious "exit control list" - people forbidden to leave Pakistan - to prevent her travelling to the United States, where she had been invited by a group of Pakistani-American doctors to speak at a human rights conference.

Officials confiscated her passport and police officers whisked her off to the capital, Islamabad. They termed the visit a "meeting"; her supporters called it house arrest.

Musharraf - who was in Auckland at the time - took responsibility for the crude gagging order. Faced with a barrage of hostile questions he told reporters in Auckland: "She was told not to go. I don't want to project the bad image of Pakistan."

Instead he blamed "Westernised fringe elements" who wanted to take her to the US to "bad mouth" Pakistan's "terrible treatment of women".

The court will either send the men Mai accuses of gang raping her to jail, order they die by hanging or allow them to go free.

"I expect the same decision as was given by the special court," Mai told reporters at the Supreme Court before the session began, referring to the conviction of the men.

Mai, 33, first made the headlines in June 2002, when a council of elders in Meerwala village sentenced her to be gang raped in punishment for a sexual crime allegedly committed by her brother.

Instead of staying silent - a common reaction in Pakistan - she created a sensation by confronting her attackers in court, and winning.

She became a heroine overnight, with human rights groups lauding her. Musharraf sent a $11,800 gift, and other rape victims were inspired to speak out.

But in March of this year the success turned sour. An appeal court overturned the original convictions, citing flaws in the prosecution case.

Following protests, including from the US Government, the travel ban was lifted.

Mai now has her passport but says her first priority is the appeal.

- NZPA, REUTERS