Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the rearrest of 13 men linked to the internationally condemned gang rape of a woman, including members of a village council that ordered the assault.
Victim Mukhtaran Mai, who has become an icon for her pursuit of justice and fight for women's rights in conservative Islamic Pakistan, has complained that her safety would be under threat if the suspects were allowed to roam free.
The 33-year-old launched an appeal yesterday against the acquittal earlier this year of five of the men who are to be detained. The other eight set to be arrested include some members of a so-called tribal jury, her lawyer said.
All 13 had been arrested earlier this year on the orders of the government but were freed this month, prompting worldwide anger that was compounded when Pakistan banned Mai from travelling abroad.
"I am very happy. I am feeling highly satisfied," said Mai as she embraced women's rights activists outside the court.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry made the order after Pakistan's attorney general applied for the detentions.
"Non-bailable warrants of arrest of the respondents... are issued," he told the court.
Mai was raped in June 2002 on the orders of a village council in the remote village of Meerwala in reprisal for her brother's alleged affair with a woman from a powerful rival clan.
Six men were sentenced to death in August 2002 after she defied local custom and testified. But the Lahore High Court acquitted five of them on appeal on March 3 and commuted the sentence of the sixth to life imprisonment.
Despite the acquittal of the five, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz then ordered all 13 suspects to be locked up under the maintenance of public order act when Mai voiced fears they would harm her and her family.
However a three-judge review board of the Lahore High Court this month released them once more.
Mai's lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan confirmed the other eight men to be arrested included members of the village council who ordered the rape.
"This is not a case of simple rape, it was an act of terrorism," he said outside the court. "It was meant to create terror and fear in the community."
The Supreme Court ordered the inspector general of police in Pakistan's central province of Punjab, where Meerwala is located, to arrest the men and hand them over to judicial custody while the appeal is heard.
"They should be treated as under-trial prisoners." Chaudhry added.
The United States strongly criticised Islamabad earlier this month after military ruler President Pervez Musharraf barred Mai from travelling to the United States to speak about her ordeal.
Islamabad dropped the travel ban a few days later after the United States said it was "dismayed" and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured a personal pledge from Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.
Yesterday Mai said the government had finally returned her confiscated passport.
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