Posted on 03/01/2004 4:17:43 PM PST by Piefloater
Three Pakistani gang rapists who are facing life in jail yesterday begged a judge to be pardoned, citing cultural differences that led to the brutal attack, immaturity on their part and hardship within their families if they were imprisoned.
But Supreme Court Justice Brian Sully said "culture or no culture", a strong message needed to be sent to other young men that such horrific sex crimes against women will not be tolerated in modern society.
Andrew Haesler, for one of the defendants, known as MMK, 17, said his client was immature and had lived in Australia for two years without the "restrictive boundaries" in his home country.
But Justice Sully said the crime could not be passed off as a "youthful indiscretion that has somehow gone wrong".
"Sixteen or not, what he did is absolutely repellent behaviour, and it's adult-type behaviour," he said. "It has to be established once and for all that culture or no culture, wherever he came from, however old you are, this cannot be tolerated in modern society."
Five males, four of whom are brothers, were found guilty last year of nine counts of aggravated sexual assault in company - which carries a maximum life sentence - on two girls, aged 16 and 17, at the brothers' Ashfield family home on July 28, 2002.
The girls were repeatedly raped, threatened with knives and bullets and one was told the other had been killed because she had resisted her attackers. None of the men can be named because the younger brothers, MMK and MRK, 18, were minors at the time. Another man, known as RS, is 25.
Two of the men, known as MSK, 25, and MAK, 23, sobbed openly in court, maintaining their innocence and begging for "another chance".
The brothers are representing themselves because they believe an anti-Muslim conspiracy has prevented a fair hearing. Their father, a practising doctor, told the court they should be pardoned because they "did not know the culture of this country".
Justice Sully said the victims' impact statements had greatly affected him: "I have not heard . . . anything like it . . . something proper needs to be done to get the message out to the adolescents and teenagers."
The men are the first to be convicted of the new offence of aggravated sexual assault in company, which carries a maximum life penalty.
They will be sentenced on March 12.
What the Egyptians do,
We needn't be troublin',
But you can't have that sort of thing,
Going on in Dublin!
An "anti-Muslim conspiracy" is the sound of a .223 entering your cranium according to the rule of law.
Just take them out back and hang them with a rope made of pig skin.
Hes right, you know. Rape and sexual assault on women are cornerstones of Islam. Call me a bigot, racist whatever, muslims treat women like objects. These muslims are really stunned that they are being punished so harshly; they have been admittedly brought up in an enviornment where that type of behavior is condoned, even encouraged. I hope they get life, in Australia's equivalent of San Quentin or Huntsville..
My, my. Such brave Is-slimeac warriors! First, they take 3:2 odds to rape a couple of innocent girls. I wonder how much attention they paid to those helpless young girls' pleas? Obviously, the answer is - none.
And now, these vermin beg to be pardoned?
I have an idea for some appropriate punishments. Sadly, those ideas would violate posting policy, so I leave them to the imagination of the reader.
I thought the same thing..
If they thought Australia was like Pakistan, they might have thought the victims would be punished along with themselves. As a result, they might have hoped the victims wouldn't testify. But they also would have thought that if the girls did testify, they would hang. See:
Six to hang in Meerwala (Pakistan) rape case
Justice Sully said the victims' impact statements had greatly affected him: "I have not heard . . . anything like it . . . something proper needs to be done to get the message out to the adolescents and teenagers."
What a credulous fool. Get the word out? The underage boys here are hardly likely to get anywhere near the punishment as in Pakistan. Is that the word?
6 get death penalty for rape ordered by tribal jury
By ASIM TANVEER
DERA GHAZI KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters): A Pakistani court on Sept. 1 sentenced six men to death for the gang rape of a woman on the orders of a traditional village jury.
Defense lawyer Mohammad Yaqub told Reuters that eight other men were acquitted in the trial before a special antiterrorism court in the Punjab provincial town of Dera Ghazi Khan, whose shocking findings highlighted the abuse of women in rural areas.
Mukhtiar Mai, the 30-year old victim, was not present when the court announced the decision amid heavy security. She told Reuters on Aug. 30 that members of her family had been threatened with death if the men were convicted.
Yaqub said four men were sentenced to death for committing the rape and two others for serving on the village jury that authorized the crime.
“The four rapists and two jurors have been given the death penalty and a fine of 40,000 rupees ($675) each. The remaining eight have been acquitted. “We will appeal,” he added.
Yaqub named the four sentenced to death for the rape as brothers Allah Ditta and Abdul Khaliq, Fayyaz Hussain and Ghulam Farid. The two jurors were Faiz Bakhsh and Ramzan Bichar. All the eight acquitted had also served on the jury.
“God has provided justice to me,” Mai told Reuters by telephone. “If courts start giving decisions like this, I am sure rapes will be reduced, if not stopped totally. I am satisfied with the decision.”
Mai’s father Ghulam Farid Jat said she was overcome by the news. “She cried loudly and fainted a few times,” he said.
Mai said she was raped by four men after approaching the traditional jury, or panchayat, in Meerawali to settle a dispute with the rival Mastoi clan. The victim said she went to the jury after her 12-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor was kidnapped and sodomized by members of Mastoi family as a punishment for having an illicit affair with one of their relatives.
The jury ruled that to save Mastoi honor, Shakoor should marry the woman with whom he was linked, while Mai, who is divorced, was to be given away in marriage to a Mastoi man.
The prosecution said that when she rejected the decision she was raped by the four Mastoi men and made to walk home nearly naked in front of hundreds of people.
The lawyers for six men sentenced to death for the gang-rape filed appeals against the verdict on Sept. 3, Reuters reported from Islamabad. Defense lawyer Malik Mohammad Saleem said he had challenged the convictions in the provincial high court in Multan, capital of Punjab province.
“I have filed two separate appeals, one on behalf of four convicted on the rape charge and the other on behalf of the two men who sat on the jury,” he said.
The prosecution has also said it will appeal — against the acquittal of the eight jurors.
Chief prosecution lawyer Ramzan Khalid Joya said he would file an appeal against the acquittal of eight jurors.
That's right. They show no mercy to westerners who violate their laws and customs. To their credit, they don't buy into "multicultural" gibberish, not in their own countries. And they rightly see us as fools for indulging in it over here.
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