Pakistan frees rapist on agreement of convict marrying victim

Peshawar: In Pakistan, a convicted rapist got freed over the promise that he would marry the victim. In a strange decision by a court here, it released the rapist in a settlement, which involved a council of elders in the nation's northwest region, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the convict's lawyer.

Activists here raised their contempt over the ruling and said that it legitimises the sexual violence against women in the nation while a majority of rape cases here go unreported.

It was in May, the 25-year-old convict, Dawlat Khan, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in the Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The victim in the case was deaf. Khan was released on Monday after the Peshawar High Court approved the out-of-court settlement, which was agreed upon by the victim's family.

The convict's lawyer told AFP that both survivor and the convict were of the same extended family, and both families came to the agreement with the backing of the traditional local council.

The convict was arrested after the victim, an unmarried, delivered a baby earlier this, and the paternity test proved him its biological father.

AFP reports that rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan since women are treated as second-class citizens there. The conviction rate is lesser than three per cent of the cases that go to trial while very few cases are reported too, according to a group, Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell, which provides support for vulnerable women.

There is the social stigma which causes the low rate of reporting, lapses in investigations into cases, shoddy prosecution of accused, out-of-the-court settlement etc., are there in the country.

Condemning the decision, an activist and a lawyer, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, said that the court's decision is effectively an approval of rape, rape mentality and facilitation of rapists.

Its breaches the basic principle of justice and the law, which never recognised such an arrangement. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed its despair, saying that it was "appalled" by the judgement.

It said that rape is a non-compoundable crime and should not be resolved via feeble 'compromise' marriages.

The jirgas or panchayats in rural Pakistan have the power to bypass the justice system through their judgements being legally invalid.