Pakistani authorities say they will appeal the acquittal by the country's Supreme Court of five men charged in an "honor rape" case that drew international condemnation.

In 2002, the Meerwala village council allegedly ordered Mukhtar Mai to be raped by village men as punishment for accusations that her brother, then 12, sexually assaulted a woman from the Mastoi clan. It was later revealed that her brother had been molested by Mastoi men who tried to cover it up with the accusations.

In August 2002 six 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. Five of those convictions were overturned in Lahore March 3. A sixth man, one of the village elders, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. (New Kerala, March 7)

See also WW4 REPORT #41