A court in Lahore has framed charges against eight suspects, including Muhammad Raza Dar, the grandson of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, in the alleged gang-rape of two foreign women in the city in June.
Lahore Additional District and Sessions Judge Rafaqat Ali Gondal framed the charges on Tuesday, 10 November. All eight suspects pleaded not guilty. They are in judicial custody, and the prosecution has been directed to present its witnesses on 9 December, when the formal trial begins.
The victims are Stephanie Adnana Mau-Arun, from the Netherlands, and Astrid Robinson Baracho, from Venezuela, who had arrived in Lahore on a business trip in June. They were allegedly kidnapped and raped on 29 June by Raza Dar and four of his friends.
The case has drawn attention because of the family link, and because of a dramatic U-turn by the Punjab police. The police had earlier given Raza Dar and his four accomplices a “clean chit” and instead charged three of his low-paid employees with the crime.
The court’s decision to indict Raza Dar and the others reverses that police position, and it means the case will now be heard on the basis of the victims’ account, which named the deputy prime minister’s grandson and his friends as the attackers.
The indictment is a significant moment for a case that has been watched closely in Pakistan, where the families of powerful politicians are rarely prosecuted. The fact that the court has framed charges against the grandson of the country’s deputy prime minister is itself unusual.
Women’s rights campaigners have said the case will be a test of whether the justice system can hold the powerful to account, and whether the victims, who are foreign nationals, will be protected through a trial that is likely to attract intense public attention.
The trial will begin with the prosecution’s witnesses on 9 December. The defence has not yet set out its case in public, beyond the not-guilty pleas entered by all eight suspects.
Ishaq Dar, who is also Pakistan’s foreign minister, has not commented publicly on the indictment. His office has previously said that the law should take its course.
For the two women, who have since left Pakistan, the framing of charges is the first formal step towards a trial, more than four months after the alleged attack. The case is now in the hands of the court, and its progress will be followed closely both in Pakistan and abroad.
