Is there justice for rape accused?

NEW DELHI (AP):In the court of public opinion, the men being tried for the gang rape of an Indian university student should be hanged in a public square.

That demand for swift justice might make it impossible for them to get a fair trial in a court of law. Already, there are plenty of portents.

Amid the heightened emotions that have surrounded this case a local bar association has stopped its members from representing the men, citing the heinous nature of the crime.

The three grandstanding lawyers who have rushed in to represent the accused spent weeks taking pot-shots at each other instead of coordinating a defence.

Two lawyers fought for days over which one was representing one of the defendants.

And the case is being heard by a brand-new fast-track court, set up in the wake of the rape to deal with sexual assaults in the capital, that is under pressure to reach a verdict within weeks.

Finally, whatever is said or submitted in court has to stay in the room - a gag order by the judge prevents the media from reporting anything about the case.

"However wicked and depraved society may perceive a person to be, he deserves a fair trial. He deserves a good defence," said Markandey Katju, a retired judge of India's Supreme Court.

"That some of those charged are the real culprits and some are innocent ... that is a very real possibility," he said, adding that in India the police "spreads its net wide".

As details of the attack have emerged, Katju said he feared the trial may be overrun by emotion rather than the calm voice of reason.

"You can't decide cases on sentiment. That's lynch law."

severe injuries

The specifics of the gang rape are horrifying. According to the police report, the attack lasted at least 45 minutes.

There were six attackers, one of whom claims to be a juvenile and is being tried separately.

Each of the men raped the 23-year-old woman, with at least two taking turns driving the bus.

They penetrated her with two metal rods, causing such severe internal injuries that doctors later found parts of her intestines floating freely inside her abdomen.

The battered woman and her badly beaten male friend were then thrown out of the moving bus and lay naked and bleeding on the side of a busy road on a cold December night.

The attack was so brutal that the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.