WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch called Friday on Pakistan's government to seek a review of the acquittal of five men accused of gang raping a woman in order to punish her brother.
Mukhtar Mai, whose case has drawn international outrage, was gang raped in 2002 on orders of a village council after her younger brother -- then 12 -- was wrongly alleged to have had relations with a woman from a rival clan.
A panel of Pakistan's Supreme Court dismissed Mai's appeal against the acquittal of five men and ordered their release on Thursday. But it upheld a life sentence for the main accused, Abdul Khaliq.
Human Rights Watch called on Pakistan's government to petition the full court to review the case and asked authorities to protect Mai, who has said that she fears for her life after her unusual decision to speak out.
Brad Adams, the Asia director of the New York-based rights group, said Pakistan should send a clear signal on women's rights and to make clear that local councils cannot take the law into their own hands.
"The failure to ensure justice in what by all accounts was a straightforward prosecution shows the justice system's appalling disregard for women's rights," he said in a statement.
Mai, who now helps protect women facing threats at the hands of influential men, told AFP after the verdict that she would not file any further appeal.
A local anti-terrorism court had initially sentenced all six men to death, but the Lahore High Court later acquitted the five and commuted Khaliq's sentence to life imprisonment.
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