PAKISTAN. GANG-RAPE VICTIM APPEALS TO MUSHARRAF FOR JUSTICE

Mukhtiar Mai, a Pakistani gang-rape victim, appealed to President Pervez Musharraf on to order the re-arrest of four of her alleged attackers, who had been freed from jail despite a court decision to reconsider their acquittal. Six men were sentenced to death in August 2002 for the assault, which was carried out on the orders of a tribal council, but were acquitted on appeal to Lahore High Court. The Supreme Court had suspended the acquittal of five of them pending a new hearing at a date to be set. But four of the five were released from a jail on March 15 despite the top court's decision to reconsider the case. They returned to Meerwala, the home village of victim Mai, 33, while the Supreme Court waited to fix the date for the hearing. 
"I want President Musharraf to re-order their arrest because their free movement is deplorable," Mai said during a visit to Islamabad to prepare legal papers for the case.
Mai was raped for more than an hour at Meerwala in Punjab province in June 2002, as punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a powerful rival clan. She was then forced to walk home naked before her father was finally able to cover her with a blanket.