By IANS,
Islamabad : Upholding a Lahore High Court verdict, a three-judge bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court Thursday acquitted five of the six accused in the Mukhtaran Mai rape case, a daily reported.
Abdul Khalique, the sixth accused in the case, will have to complete his life sentence, the Dawn cited the apex court as stating in its judgment Thursday.
Reacting to the court’s verdict, Mukhtaran Mai told reporters outside the court that she had lost faith in the judicial system.
When asked about seeking a review of the court’s verdict, Mukhtaran Mai said she would take a decision on the matter after consulting her lawyers.
“I did not receive justice today, hence I have left my fate in the hands of God,” Mukhtaran Mai said while speaking to journalists from her house later.
“The release of the suspects has put my life in grave danger,” she added
Mukhtaran Mai is a Pakistani woman from Meerwala village in Muzaffargarh district. She was subjected to gang rape as a form of honour revenge on the orders of a panchayat of the local Mastoi Baloch clan, comparatively richer and more powerful to Mukhtaran’s Tatla clan in that region.
Human Rights organisations, meanwhile, also condemned the release of the accused in the case.
In this case, police had submitted a challan against 14 persons in the Anti-Terrorism Court in July 2002.
The court awarded death sentence to six accused and ordered release of the other eight.
After the verdict of the Anti-Terrorism Court was handed out, five accused had been ordered released by the Lahore High Court’s Multan bench. Besides, the death sentence of one accused was changed to life imprisonment.