A Pakistani court has upheld the death sentences awarded to two men for raping a French woman in front of her children six years ago.

Abid Ali and Shadqat Ali were accused of assaulting the foreign tourist on the busy Lahore-Sialkot motorway in September 2020.

Investigators said the 32-year-old woman’s car had run out of fuel, leaving her stranded on the highway after midnight. She was calling for help when the two men pulled up. They broke the windows of the car, dragged the tourist and her children to a nearby field and sexually assaulted her. They were sentenced to death by a trial court in March 2021 but moved to the Lahore High Court for reprieve later that year.

Justices Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Tariq Mehmood Bajwa rejected their plea on Wednesday.

“The Lahore High Court today dismissed the appeals of the two men convicted in infamous rape case of the French woman of Pakistani-origin in 2020 in Lahore and upheld the trial court's verdict of awarding them death sentences,” a court official said.

The incident had sparked outrage in Pakistan and prompted calls for stronger legislation against rape.

Public anger was further inflamed by a senior police official berating the victim for driving alone at night “without the protection of a man”. Lahore’s police chief said that nobody in Pakistan would “allow their sisters and daughters to travel alone so late” and that the French woman probably "mistook Pakistani society to be just as safe" as her country.

In the aftermath, Pakistan brought a new anti-rape law establishing special courts to speed up trials in sexual assault cases and allowing for chemical castration of serial rapists.

Chemical castration involves the use of drugs to reduce a person’s libido. The move was backed by the then prime minister Imran Khan but activists said it was unclear how it would act as a deterrent.