A Pakistani court freed a rapist Monday after marrying his victim, the rapist’s lawyer said Wednesday.
A lower court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province sentenced Dawlat Khan, 25, to life imprisonment in May, according to CBS News. Khan was released Monday after marrying his victim as part of an out-of-court settlement accepted by both the Peshawar High Court and the victim’s family, CBS reported. (RELATED: How A US Ally Helped Build The Taliban Into The Rulers Of Afghanistan)
#FPNews#Pakistani man who raped a deaf woman and was sentenced to jail for life has now been set free by #Peshawar High Court on the condition that he marries the victim who gave birth to his child#Crime #Pakistan
https://t.co/cCjbjIQZ8n— Firstpost (@firstpost) December 29, 2022
Amjad Ali, the perpetrator’s lawyer, told Agence France-Presse that both Khan and the victim, who is deaf, share the same extended family, according to CBS.
“Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),” he told AFP, per CBS.
Khan was reportedly arrested after the victim gave birth at the beginning of 2022 and a paternity test revealed that Khan was the child’s father.
“This is effectively the court’s approval of rape and facilitation of rapists and rape mentality,” Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer and human rights activist, told CBS. “It is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognize such an arrangement.”
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan tweeted that it was “appalled” by the ruling.
HRCP is appalled to learn that a Peshawar High Court bench has acquitted a man convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life for having raped a vocally and hearing-impaired woman. Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble ‘compromise’ marriage pic.twitter.com/t9xcZegu0s
— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) December 27, 2022
“Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble ‘compromise’ marriage,” HRCP tweeted.