12 accused in child abuse case acquitted

lahore — A court acquitted 12 men of child sex abuse and blackmail charges on Saturday, the latest verdict in a massive paedophilia scandal that rocked the country in August 2015.

The abuse and extortion scandal, which authorities have called the largest in Pakistan’s history, allegedly involved hundreds of victims in Punjab province. Two of the accused were jailed for life in April last year.

Judge Chaudhry Ilyas acquitted the men of “sexual abuse of a young boy and making a video to blackmail his family”, a court official said.

Prosecutors produced 16 witnesses against the accused men, but could not prove the charges, the official said. Another court official confirmed the details.

In the village of Hussain Khanwala in Kasur, southwest of Lahore, videos were made of at least 280 children being sexually abused by a gang who blackmailed their parents by threatening to leak the videos.

The police, who had conspicuously failed to act despite pleas from some parents, eventually made dozens of arrests after clashes between relatives and authorities brought the issue into the media spotlight.

In March 2016, the Senate also passed a bill that criminalised sexual assault against minors, child pornography and trafficking for the first time — previously only the acts of rape and sodomy were punishable by law. — AFP