A Pakistani court sentenced six men to death for the...

A Pakistani court sentenced six men to death for the gang rape of a woman on the orders of a traditional village jury.
Eight other men were acquitted in the trial before a special anti-terrorism court in the Punjab provincial town of Dera Ghazi Khan, whose shocking findings highlighted the abuse of women in rural areas.
Mukhtar Mai, the 30-year old victim, was not present when the court announced the decision amid heavy security. Defence lawyer Mohammad Yaqub said four men were sentenced to death for committing the rape and two others for serving on the village jury that authorised the crime.
"The four rapists and two jurors have been given the death penalty and a fine of 40,000 rupees ($675) each. The remaining eight have been acquitted.
"We will appeal," he added.
Yaqub named the four sentenced to death for the rape as brothers Allah Ditta and Abdul Khaliq, Fayyaz Hussain and Ghulam Farid. The two jurors were Faiz Bakhsh and Ramzan Bichar.
All the eight acquitted had also served on the jury.
Mai said she was raped by four men after approaching the traditional jury, or panchayat, in Meerawali to settle a dispute with the rival Mastoi clan.
Mai said she went to the jury after her 12-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor was kidnapped and sodomised by members of Mastoi family as a punishment for having an illicit affair with one of their relatives.
The jury ruled that to save Mastoi honour, Shakoor should marry the woman with whom he was linked, while Mai, who is divorced, was to be given away in marriage to a Mastoi man.
The prosecution said that when she rejected the decision she was gang raped by the four Mastoi men and made to walk home nearly naked in front of hundreds of people.
Mai's elder brother, Hazoor Bakhsh, said the family was fully satisfied with the verdict.
"They committed a big crime against my sister and the decision was according to our expectations," he told Reuters.
Chief defence counsel Malik Mohammad Saleem told Reuters the verdict was the result of government pressure.
"It was not the independent decision of the judge. It was not according to the evidence. This decision was based on misreading of the evidence and non-reading of the evidence."Members of the Mastoi clan were visibly upset by the ruling, which came shortly after midnight (1800 GMT), but there was no sign of violent reaction.Mai told Reuters she and her family had been threatened with revenge if the men were convicted.
"We are receiving death threats," she said. "They have told us that if their four people are sentenced to death, they would kill eight of our men. Not only my family, but those who supported us are being threatened with dire consequences."
Dozens of gang rapes and "honour" killings were recorded in Punjab in 2002 alone. The latter involves the murder of women by fathers or brothers for "crimes" such as marrying without the consent of male family members.