Special court to try five men in rape case

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NEW DELHI, Iceland, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Five men charged in the rape and killing of a young woman last month will be tried in a fast-track court next week, an Indian magistrate has ordered.

Namrita Aggarwal ordered the trial to begin Monday in New Delhi in a case that ignited demonstrations across India in protest of cultural attitudes about women, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Friday.

The men, aged 18 to 35, are accused of assaulting a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus Dec. 16. The woman was dumped in a field and she died two weeks later in a hospital.

The men were arrested two days after the assault. Police said they linked the men to the crime through DNA.

The court that will hear the case is designed to bypass the delays and corruption sometimes present in the Indian legal system.

V.K. Anand, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said he did not think his client could get a fair trial in New Delhi and he would try to get the case moved out of the city.

Lawyers for the men charge police tortured them to confess.