A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Shakirullah Jan, upheld a decision by the Lahore High Court and acquitted five of the accused in a judgment that rested on flaws in the prosecution’s account of the rape and discrepancies in Ms. Mukhtar’s statements during initial investigations.
The five men who were acquitted have been jailed for years already in connection with the rape, which occurred in 2002, and are expected to be released this week. The sixth, Abdul Khaliq, is to complete a life sentence.
Ms. Mukhtar was raped on the orders of the village council in Meerwala, a dusty farming village in Punjab Province in a case that jolted the country and ignited international outrage.
The rape was said to be a punishment for her younger brother’s supposed illicit relations with a woman from a rival tribe, the Mastoi. Later police investigations found that the boy had been molested by three Mastoi tribesmen and that the accusation against him had been a cover-up.
Ms. Mukhtar became a cause célèbre among human rights advocates after she spoke out against the crime, and her ensuing legal struggle became a source of strength and inspiration for rape victims. She also set up two schools in her village.
“I am deeply upset by the decision of the Supreme Court,” she said by telephone from Meerwala. “Now I don’t have confidence in any court. But the court of God is bigger than any worldly court.”
She also expressed concern for her safety, saying, “The Supreme Court will be responsible if something happens to me or my family.”
Ms. Mukhtar said that she was informed of the court hearing on Wednesday night and wanted to attend it the next day, but that her lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, advised her not to. Mr. Ahsan could not be reached for comment despite repeated efforts.
“He said that the court would already have made up its mind, and there was little use in my traveling through the night to reach Islamabad,” she said.
Ms. Mukhtar appeared to be resigned to the decision. “I leave everything in the court of God,” she said.
The legal battle took many twists and turns in the past nine years. Fourteen men were initially charged in the case in 2002, and six — the leader of the village council, a council member and the four men accused of carrying out the rape — were convicted and sentenced to death that year.
In March 2005, the Lahore High Court overturned the convictions of five of the men and commuted the death sentence of the sixth to life in prison.
Women’s rights advocates said the Supreme Court decision was a reflection of a flawed criminal justice system. “Mukhtar’s case was so well known, and for nine years we had been campaigning, and even then if she cannot get justice, then there is no hope for any victim,” said Farzana Bari, a rights activist in Islamabad who attended the court hearing.
The New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch expressed dismay at the decision, saying in a statement that it was “a setback for Mukhtar Mai, the broader struggle to end violence against women and the cause of an independent rights-respecting judiciary in Pakistan.”
But some lawyers disagreed with the criticism and said that the bench included two of the finest judges of the Supreme Court, who ruled on the basis of the evidence before them.
“Part of the problem is that there were certain statements that Ms. Mukhtar made and later denied, but police officers had recorded them,” said Feisal H. Naqvi, a prominent lawyer. “There were certain discrepancies between her statements originally and her statement subsequently.”
While one judge might overlook the discrepancies, another might feel obliged to disqualify the evidence, Mr. Naqvi said. “It is a judgment that I disagree with,” he said, “but it is not a judgment that I disrespect.”
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