KATY DAIGLE
Associated Press= NEW DELHI (AP) รข€” An Indian judge is expected
to hand down sentences Friday in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on
a New Delhi bus, with the prosecutor and many government officials
calling for the four convicted rapists to be executed.
The men were convicted Tuesday in the December attack of the
23-year-old woman, a crime that unleashed a wave of public anger over
the treatment of women in India. The woman died two weeks after the
attack of internal injuries.
The four men face either life imprisonment or death by hanging.
The men called out to reporters as police drove them into the courthouse
complex before the sentencing hearing. "Save us, brothers! Save us!"
they could be heard shouting from the police van.
The victim's family, along with numerous politicians and government officials, have called for the men to be executed.
On Friday morning, the victim's father again urged the harshest sentence.
"They are not worthy of forgiveness," said the father, who cannot
be named under Indian laws guarding his daughter's identity as a rape
victim. "They should not even be given life imprisonment. They should
only be handed the death sentence," he said before leaving his home for
the courthouse.
A small group of protesters calling for executions also gathered at the complex before the hearing.
