Prosecutors in India are calling for the death penatly to be handed down against four men found guilty of a fatal gang rape, as a judge considers their sentences.A New Delhi judge on Tuesday found all four men guilty on 11 charges including gang rape and murder, after the rape and fatal assault of a 23-year-old woman with an iron bar on a bus last December. Her male companion was also beaten before both were thrown off the bus. The woman died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital, two weeks after the attack.
The men face the possibility of hanging. Protesters have gathered outside the courthouse this week to demand the death penalty, and scuffles broke out after the verdict on Tuesday.
The defense is vying for life imprisonment, noting that Indian law calls for execution only in very exceptional cases.
A fifth defendant, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was sentenced to three years in a reform home - the maximum sentence he could have received.
A sixth defendant, an adult, was found dead in his jail cell in March.
The woman's attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment of women in the country and led to an overhaul of India's sexual assault laws.
The men face the possibility of hanging. Protesters have gathered outside the courthouse this week to demand the death penalty, and scuffles broke out after the verdict on Tuesday.
The defense is vying for life imprisonment, noting that Indian law calls for execution only in very exceptional cases.
A fifth defendant, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was sentenced to three years in a reform home - the maximum sentence he could have received.
A sixth defendant, an adult, was found dead in his jail cell in March.
The woman's attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment of women in the country and led to an overhaul of India's sexual assault laws.