Islamic Court for Pakistan Rejects Acquittal Ruling In Rape Case - NYT

March 11 (Reuters)

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 11 - Pakistan's top Islamic court on Friday reversed a decision by the High Court to overturn the convictions of five men for a gang rape approved by a village council, according to lawyers in the case.
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Ms. Mai, now in her early 30's, was ordered to be gang-raped in June 2002 by a council in Meerwala, a dusty farming village in the southern part of Punjab Province. The rape was decreed as a punishment for illicit sexual relations between her younger brother and a woman of a rival tribe, the Mastoi.

Fourteen men were charged in the case, which jolted Pakistan. Six of the men - the leader of the village council, a council member and the four men accused of carrying out the rape - were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2002.

But on March 3, the country's High Court overturned the death sentences of five of the men and commuted the death sentence of the sixth into a life term in prison.
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March 3 (AP)