Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the head of a panel of three judges that heard the
appeal, issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the 13 suspects, who are
already in jail but not formally charged.
Days after the March acquittals, police took the 13 men into ``protective
custody'' at Mai's request because she said her life would be in danger if they
were freed, said Ijaz Baluch, a police official in Multan, a major city near
Mai's home village.
``We will formally arrest them after we receive the Supreme Court order,''
Baluch said about the suspects, who are being held in a jail in Muzaffargarh,
another town near Meerwala, about 350 miles southwest of Islamabad.
Pakistani authorities can detain suspects for up to three months without
bringing formal charges.
The court said it would hold another hearing into the case at a later date and
decide then on possible punishments for those accused.
The rape has made international headlines and become a major embarrassment for
Pakistan's Western-friendly government, drawing attention to a legal system
that has done little to protect women from violence.
Hundreds of women are raped, maimed and killed every year in so-called
``honor'' attacks, many at the hands of their own families. Victims of sexual
assault often suffer in silence for fear that they will be shunned by their
families if they come forward.
Mai herself has become somewhat of an international celebrity because of her
decision to confront her attackers. She has been the subject of a number of
editorials in prominent newspapers, including The New York Times, receiving
tens of thousands of dollars in donations from sympathizers around the world.
Mai has used some of the money to set up a school in her farming village.
Several courts - local, federal and religious - have issued conflicting rulings
in the case this year in a legal pingpong match that has often seemed
capricious and confused, further embarrassing authorities.
But perhaps the greatest damage came after revelations that the government had
barred Mai from traveling abroad and placed restrictions on her movement within
the country.
Mai had been invited by a U.S-based human rights group to talk about her
experiences, but could not attend because authorities had confiscated her
passport.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a strong ally of Washington, acknowledged in
an interview while on a trip to New Zealand, that he had ordered the travel ban
to prevent Mai from casting Pakistan in a bad light.
After officials in the Bush Administration strongly condemned the move,
Islamabad rescinded the travel ban. On Monday, Mai said the government had
returned her passport, but she hadn't yet decided if she would travel abroad.
A trial court in 2002 sentenced six men to death and acquitted eight others in
Mai's rape. In March of this year, the High Court in Punjab province, where
Mai's village of Meerwala is located, acquitted five of the men and reduced the
death sentence of the sixth to life in prison.
Islamabad - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the re-arrest of 13 men
acquitted in the gang rape of a villager whose plight has cast a glaring light
on the treatment of women in this conservative Muslim nation.
