Pakistan court releases rapist after agreement to marry deaf victim

 According to his lawyer, a Pakistani court released a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement mediated by a council of elders in the country's northwest.

Rights activists are outraged by the decision, which they say legitimizes sexual violence against women in a country where the vast majority of rapes go unreported.

Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced to life in prison in May by a lower court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Buner district for raping a deaf woman.

On Monday, he was released from prison after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement reached with the rape survivor's family.

"The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family," Khan's lawyer, Amjad Ali, told the Media.

"Both families have reconciled following an argument was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),” he added.

Khan was arrested after his unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child’s biological father.

Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens.

According to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell — a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women — the conviction rate is lower than three percent of cases that go to trial.

Few cases are reported because of the associated social stigma, while lapses during investigations, shoddy prosecutorial practices, and out-of-court settlements also contribute towards abysmal conviction rates.

“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, said of the Peshawar court decision.

“It is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognise such an arrangement,” she told Prime9jaOnline.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was “appalled” by the ruling.

“Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble ‘compromise’ marriage,” the group tweeted.

In rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value.