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| India-Pakistan |
| Witness testifies that rape victim is suspect's wife |
| 2002-08-18 |
| A woman who accused four men of raping her as tribal punishment is married to one of her alleged attackers, a defense witness said yesterday in testimony that could exonerate the accused if the court accepts it. The special prosecutor said the witness was lying to protect his son, who is accused of sodomizing the victim's brother. Truth is not an Islamic concept, is it? The witness, Ghulam Hussain, told a court in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan that he was present the night of June 22 when a cleric formalized a marriage contract between the 30-year-old woman and Abdul Khaliq, accused in the rape. However, Hussain said, the cleric did not sign marriage documents. "Yeah, I was there. I saw the whole thing. Trust me on this. Why would I lie?" The woman, whose family belongs to the Gujar tribe, testified this month that Khaliq and three other men dragged her into a hut and raped her. She testified that the rape was ordered by the council of a higher-class tribe, the Mastois, to shame her family after tribal members accused her brother of having sex with one of their women. The trial seems to have three separate rings, lions, tigers, elephants, jugglers, clowns... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |