June 28, 2005 - (AP) Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the re-arrest of 13 men acquitted in the gang rape of a villager whose plight has cast a glaring light on the treatment of women in this conservative Muslim nation.

The ruling came a day after an emotional appeal by the victim, Mukhtar Mai, who was raped in 2002 on orders from a village council, allegedly as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's illicit affair with a woman from a higher-caste family. Mai and her family deny any affair ever took place, saying the brother was in fact sexually assaulted by members of the other family.

A lower court in March acquitted five of the men who allegedly raped her, and commuted the death sentence of another to life in prison. Eight other men, most of them members of the village council, were acquitted three years ago.

Outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, dozens of women hugged and congratulated a relaxed and smiling Mai, who was dressed in the traditional shalwar kameez (trousers and a shirt) with a blue and green shawl covering her head.

''I am happy and I hope those who humiliated me will be punished,'' the 33-year old told reporters. ''I was expecting justice from the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court has done justice.''

Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the head of a panel of three judges that heard the appeal, issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the 13 suspects, who are already in jail but not formally charged.

Days after the March acquittals, police took the 13 men into ''protective custody'' at Mai's request because she said her life would be in danger if they were freed, said Ijaz Baluch, a police official in Multan, a major city near Mai's home village.

''We will formally arrest them after we receive the Supreme Court order,'' Baluch said about the suspects, who are being held in a jail in Muzaffargarh, another town near Meerwala, about 350 miles southwest of Islamabad.

Pakistani authorities can detain suspects for up to three months without bringing formal charges.

The court said it would hold another hearing into the case at a later date and decide then on possible punishments for those accused.

The rape has made international headlines and become a major embarrassment for Pakistan's Western-friendly government, drawing attention to a legal system that has done little to protect women from violence.

Hundreds of women are raped, maimed and killed every year in so-called ''honor'' attacks, many at the hands of their own families. Victims of sexual assault often suffer in silence for fear that they will be shunned by their families if they come forward.

Mai herself has become somewhat of an international celebrity because of her decision to confront her attackers. She has been the subject of a number of editorials in prominent newspapers, including The New York Times, receiving tens of thousands of dollars in donations from sympathizers around the world.

Mai has used some of the money to set up a school in her farming village.

Several courts -- local, federal and religious -- have issued conflicting rulings in the case this year in a legal pingpong match that has often seemed capricious and confused, further embarrassing authorities.

But perhaps the greatest damage came after revelations that the government had barred Mai from traveling abroad and placed restrictions on her movement within the country.

Mai had been invited by a U.S-based human rights group to talk about her experiences, but could not attend because authorities had confiscated her passport.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a strong ally of Washington, acknowledged in an interview while on a trip to New Zealand, that he had ordered the travel ban to prevent Mai from casting Pakistan in a bad light.

After officials in the Bush Administration strongly condemned the move, Islamabad rescinded the travel ban. On Monday, Mai said the government had returned her passport, but she hadn't yet decided if she would travel abroad.

A trial court in 2002 sentenced six men to death and acquitted eight others in Mai's rape. In March of this year, the High Court in Punjab province, where Mai's village of Meerwala is located, acquitted five of the men and reduced the death sentence of the sixth to life in prison.

From: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Rape-Victim.html?