<p>A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.</p>.<p>The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>"The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family," Amjad Ali, Khan's lawyer, told <em>AFP.</em></p>.<p>"Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council)," he added.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens.</p>.<p>According to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell -- a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women -- the conviction rate is lower than three percent of cases that go to trial.</p>.<p>Few cases are reported because of the associated social stigma, while lapses during investigations, shoddy prosecutorial practices, and out-of-court settlements also contribute towards abysmal conviction rates.</p>.<p>"This is effectively the court's approval of rape and facilitation of rapists and rape mentality," Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer and human rights activist, said of the Peshawar court decision.</p>.<p>"It is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognise such an arrangement," she told <em>AFP.</em></p>.<p>The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was "appalled" by the ruling.</p>.<p>"Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble 'compromise' marriage," the group tweeted.</p>.<p>In rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value.</p>
<p>A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.</p>.<p>The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>"The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family," Amjad Ali, Khan's lawyer, told <em>AFP.</em></p>.<p>"Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council)," he added.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens.</p>.<p>According to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell -- a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women -- the conviction rate is lower than three percent of cases that go to trial.</p>.<p>Few cases are reported because of the associated social stigma, while lapses during investigations, shoddy prosecutorial practices, and out-of-court settlements also contribute towards abysmal conviction rates.</p>.<p>"This is effectively the court's approval of rape and facilitation of rapists and rape mentality," Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer and human rights activist, said of the Peshawar court decision.</p>.<p>"It is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognise such an arrangement," she told <em>AFP.</em></p>.<p>The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was "appalled" by the ruling.</p>.<p>"Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble 'compromise' marriage," the group tweeted.</p>.<p>In rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value.</p>