Two Pakistani men who gang-raped a French tourist in front of her three children after her car ran out of fuel will be executed by hanging, a court has ruled. Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali were convicted of gang rape, kidnapping, robbery, and terrorism offenses in March 2021 for the attack on the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway and were given the death penalty. However, they appealed their conviction, with the defense arguing that there were gaps in the prosecution's version of events and that the judge's decision was unjust. On Wednesday, June 3, 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 carried out the 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, jewelry, and bank cards before fleeing. Police said the woman was left traumatized, but she was able to provide them with some basic descriptions of her attackers. 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.
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. 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.
