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Two Pakistani men who gang-raped a French tourist in front of her three children six years ago will be sentenced to death, a court has ruled.
Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali were convicted of gang rape, kidnapping, robbery and terrorism offences back in March 2021 over the attack on the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway and were handed the death penalty.
Both appealed their conviction, with the defence arguing that there were gaps in the prosecution's version of events and that the judge’s decision was unjust.
But on Wednesday, two judges dismissed the appeal after the prosecution argued that there was overwhelming evidence against the two men, according to the English-language Pakistani news outlet, Dawn.
Malhi and Ali unleashed their attack on September 9, 2020, after the woman and her three children became stranded on the motorway leading out of Lahore after running out of fuel.
She had locked the car doors while she waited for help, but the attackers broke a window and dragged her outside, where they raped her at gunpoint in front of her terrified children.
The men also stole money, jewellery, and bank cards before fleeing.
Police said the woman was left traumatised, but she was able to provide them with some basic descriptions of her attackers.
Pakistani security officials stand guard at the trial of two men in Lahore on 20 March 2021
They were tracked down via mobile phone data and arrested days after the incident.
DNA samples taken from the crime scene matched theirs.
The survivor identified the two men during a hearing, and Ali confessed to the crime before a magistrate.
An anti-terrorism court handled the 2021 trial for expediency.
The case drew widespread condemnation on social media, with some activists demanding that those involved be hanged in public.
It also led to mass protests across Pakistan, after a policeman questioned why the woman had been out late on her own.
The day after the attack, a senior police official in Lahore, Umer Sheikh, appeared in front of the media and implied the woman was partly to blame.
He questioned why she had not taken a busier road, given that she was alone with her young children.
People carry signs against a gang rape that occurred along a highway and to condemn violence against women and girls, during a protest in Karachi, Pakistan on September 12, 2020
His remarks prompted a widespread reaction on social media, with Pakistanis calling him out for victim-blaming.
The decision to maintain the death penalty comes after human rights activists urged the government to introduce harsher penalties for rapists.
Although sexual abuse against Pakistani women is common, such crimes against foreigners are rare.
Many Pakistani women don’t report such incidents to avoid stigma in a society where rapists often escape justice because of flaws in the legal system and poor investigations by police.
Pakistan is among the world's harshest users of the death penalty, according to legal action group Justice Project Pakistan.
The country carries out its executions at several locations, but all die by hanging.
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