Pakistan gang-rape victim free to go abroad
posted by Suerreal @ 11:13 PM
Saturday, June 18, 2005
About Me
- Name: Suerreal
- Location: Amarillo, TX
I'm Married to my college sweetheart (for 25 years).
I have a Live Journal here:
My LJ
Previous Posts
- Was This Really eBay's Fault?
- Bird Flu Drug Rendered Useless
- U.S. dismayed at treatment of Pakistani rape victi...
- Everything you always wanted to know about the ste...
- Mother Explains Fatal Pit Bull Mauling
- Silly Plant Tricks
- Tyson Loses in Sixth; Career May Be Over
- Europe's oldest civilization unearthed: report
- One Night Changes a Life, and Calif. Town
- Pakistan court orders 12 men freed in gang rape
1 Comments:
SLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani gang rape victim may travel abroad after the Pakistani government said on Wednesday it had lifted restrictions on her movements following protests from international media and the U.S. government.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang raped on the orders of a traditional village council in 2002, had demanded that the government allow her to travel after a court ordered the release of 12 men connected with her case.
The State Department called the travel restrictions "outrageous" following the order to release the men, some of whom were accused of raping her, and it said she was welcome to visit the United States.
"On the instruction of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the name of Mukhtaran Mai has been removed from the ECL," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sharpao told parliament, referring to an exit control list that prevents overseas travel.
"She is free to go anywhere. She can go wherever she wants," he said.
Mai's case provoked national outcry and focused international attention on the treatment of women in rural Pakistan. Human rights workers had wanted Mai to go abroad to speak on the plight of women in her country.
Aziz said last week any security measures were protective as Mai had expressed fears for her safety.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. government raised the issue with senior Pakistani officials.
"We were confronted with what I can only say was an outrageous situation, where her attackers were ordered to be freed while she had restrictions on her travel placed on her," McCormack told reporters in Washington.
President Pervez Musharraf, who has been trying to project Pakistan as a moderate and progressive Muslim nation, has taken a personal interest in the case, saying it was tarnishing the country's image overseas.
The original trial before an anti-terrorism court in 2002 found that Mai was gang-raped on the orders of a traditional village council after her brother -- who was 12 at the time -- was judged to have offended the honor of a powerful clan by befriending a woman from their tribe.
Six men were originally convicted of the crime and sentenced to death, but five were later acquitted after appealing to the Punjab court, which cited a lack of evidence. A sixth had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
The provincial government later intervened and ordered the six men detained for three months pending the outcome of an appeal by the victim against the acquittal. Another six men who served on the village council were detained at the same time.
Post a Comment
<< Home