Indian court overturns death sentences for rape of photojournalists | Sexual Assault News

The Supreme Court is changing the death sentences for three men convicted of gang rape in 2013 at the Shakti Mills complex in Mumbai.

A Mumbai court in India has overturned the death penalty for three men convicted in a group rape case which exacerbated anger against Indian women’s security.

The 2013 attack followed another large-scale rape the previous year that left a woman dead in New Delhi, and sparked protests across the nation as a result of tougher anti-rape laws.

The three men from Mumbai, along with two accomplices, trapped and repeatedly raped A 22-year-old photojournalist who was on a mission in an abandoned factory.

The Shakti Mills complex is located next to a trendy area of ​​India’s financial center apartments, office blocks, shops and restaurants.

The attack left residents of Mumbai upset, a metropolis that is considered much safer for women than the capital of New Delhi, and sparked protests in the city and a riot in the national parliament.

Mumbai Police arrested the three accused and their accomplices a week after the incident.

The arrest prompted a 19-year-old telephone operator go ahead and the trio is accused of being raped in the same place a month earlier, along with two different accomplices.

All seven defendants – two of them minors – were tried for the two rapes.

The 2012 New Delhi case it led to a repeated change in the law to allow the rapist to receive the death penalty.

Three men convicted of the two Mumbai attacks were sentenced to be hanged, according to amended legislation, for such first sentences.

At the time of sentencing, they were 19, 21 and 28 years old.

The Mumbai High Court upheld the sentences on Thursday, but reduced the sentences to “strict life imprisonment” without parole.

“Death ends the concept of remorse,” the judge said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

“It cannot be said that the accused only deserved the death penalty. They deserve a life sentence for repenting of the crime they committed. ”