Agence France Presse

Islamabad, March 27:

The victim of high-profile Pakistani gang rape case has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittals of five men involved in the alleged assault, court officials said today. “I have filed the appeal on behalf of Mukhtiar Mai,” lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said. “A date for hearing is to be fixed,” Ahsan said adding that the proceedings may start in a couple of weeks. Mai was raped on the orders of a tribal council at Meerwala in June 2002 as punishment for her brother’s alleged affair with a woman of a powerful rival clan. Six men were sentenced to death in August 2002 for the assault. But a Lahore High Court acquitted five of them, while the sixth had his punishment commuted to life imprisonment. Mai urged President Musharraf to intervene, saying her life was in danger if the accused were allowed to move freely.