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| India-Pakistan |
| Meerwala gang rape trial starts... |
| 2002-07-26 |
| The trial of four men accused of gang-raping a woman on the orders of a traditional village jury began in Pakistan Friday. Shackled in handcuffs and chained together, the four emerged from the back of a police van with their co-accused and were led into the courtroom in the regional center of Dera Ghazi Khan. Three other men are also charged in connection with the rape, which happened in a remote village in southern Punjab where women are often the pawns in feudal disputes driven by honor and revenge. And the rest of the time they're breeding stock... Abdul Khaliq, Ghulam Farid, Faiz Mohammad and Allah Ditta, aged between 20 and 40, deny the charges against them. "Nope. Wudn't us..." "None of the seven accused is guilty," said defense lawyer Malik Mohammad Saleem. Pure as they driven snow. They wuz just walkin' down the street, see? An' this here woman, she jumps out, and she rapes them! Yeah! That's what happened... "This is a case of 'hang them first, try them later'," his aide added. "There was not a single eyewitness to the rape." "I mean, the woman was there, but what the hell good is her word?" |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |