The woman at the centre of a brutal gang-rape case...

The woman at the centre of a brutal gang-rape case which shocked Pakistan made her first appearance at the trial of four men accused of raping her and 10 others charged as accomplices.Mukhtaran Mai, a 30-year-old divorcee, wore a black veil as she entered the court with her father in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province.
She says she was repeatedly raped in late June on the orders of a tribal council, or panchayat, in the remote village of Meerwala in southern Punjab, where rapes and killings of women are common and often go unreported.
Her lawyer, Ramzan Khalid Joiya, said she was calm throughout the day's proceedings, but did not give a statement as expected. The court was closed to the public and press.
"My plan was to produce her as a witness today, but on account of the lengthy cross-examination less than two statements were recorded," Joiya told Reuters.
Defence lawyer Malik Mohammad Saleem told reporters outside the court that statements given by key witness Abdul Razzaq, the local imam in Meerwala, had produced conflicting accounts of the incident, raising doubts over whether he even witnessed it.
But Joiya said he was confident of winning a conviction despite the defence's claims.
All 14 men face the death penalty if found guilty, although appeals and barter arrangements mean many death sentences in Pakistan are commuted to imprisonment or lifted completely.