PHC frees rapist after deal to marry victim

PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) has freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders (jirga).

According to the details, the decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported.

Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment by a lower court in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for raping a deaf woman.

He was released from prison on Monday after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor’s family.

"The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family," Amjad Ali, Khan’s lawyer, said.

He added that both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council). 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.