PESHAWAR: A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.
\nThe decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimizes sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported.
\nDawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment by a lower court in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for raping a deaf woman.
\nHe was released from prison on Monday after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor\u2019s family.
\n\u201cThe rapist and the victim are from the same extended family,\u201d Amjad Ali, Khan\u2019s lawyer.
\n\u201cBoth families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),\u201d he added.
\nKhan was arrested after his unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child\u2019s biological father.
\nRape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens.
\nAccording to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell \u2014 a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women \u2014 the conviction rate is lower than three percent of cases that go to trial.
\nFew cases are reported because of the associated social stigma, while lapses during investigations, shoddy prosecutorial practices, and out-of-court settlements also contribute toward abysmal conviction rates.
\n\u201cThis is effectively the court\u2019s approval of rape and facilitation of rapists and rape mentality,\u201d Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer and human rights activist, said of the Peshawar court decision.
\n\u201cIt is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognize such an arrangement,\u201d she told AFP.
\nThe Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was \u201cappalled\u201d by the ruling.
\n\u201cRape is a non-compoundable offense that cannot be resolved through a feeble \u2018compromise\u2019 marriage,\u201d the group tweeted.
\nIn rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday. The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimizes sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peshawar"},"yoast_head":"\n