Five of six men charged over a village council-sanctioned gang rape in Pakistan have been acquitted by the Supreme Court

The court upheld the decision of a lower court, which included commuting the death penalty of the sixth man to life imprisonment. The victim, Mukhataran Mai, hit world headlines after speaking out about her ordeal in 2002. She has since become an icon for women's rights in Pakistan. She said she now feared for her life. "The police never even recorded my own statements correctly," she said. "I don't have any more faith in the courts. I have put my faith in God's judgement now. I don't know what the legal procedure is, but my faith [in the system] is gone. Yes, there is a threat to me and my family. There is a threat of death, and even of the same thing happening again. Anything can happen." Ali Dayan Hasan of the US-based Human Rights Watch said that the verdict sent a very bad signal across Pakistani society. "It suggests women can be abused and even raped with impunity and those perpetrating such crimes can walk," he said. Mukhtaran Mai was attacked on the orders of the powerful Mastoi clan as a punishment because her brother - 12 at the time - had allegedly been having an affair with a Mastoi woman. This, they said, had brought shame to the entire clan. An illiterate villager in the eastern province of Punjab, Mukhtaran Mai could have gone the way of many other Pakistani women who are raped, committing suicide. Instead, she battled against her initial suicidal feelings and began a lengthy legal battle, which has since won her human rights accolades and an iconic status for women's rights in the country. She runs a school for girls in her village, and has vowed that the ruling will not force her to leave her home.