Six jailed over Swiss tourist gang rape in India

Five of the six men after their arrest in connection with the gang rape of a female Swiss tourist (EPA)

An Indian court has sentenced six men convicted of the gang rape of a Swiss woman to life imprisonment, a lawyer in the case said.

The 39-year-old Swiss woman was raped while camping with her husband in a forest in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in mid-March. Three months earlier, a student was gang-raped and beaten in a moving bus and thrown bleeding on to the street in a case that triggered mass protests.

"It was a good judgment. It came early," said Rajendra Tiwari, a lawyer for the government.

The National Crime Records Bureau says more than 24,200 rapes were reported across India in 2011 - about one every 20 minutes. Police estimate only four out of 10 rapes are reported, largely due to victims' fear of being shamed by their families and communities.

The gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a bus on Dec. 16 in New Delhi sparked a global outcry over the issue and brought thousands of people onto the streets to demand better policing to prevent sex crimes. The trainee physiotherapist later died from her injuries.

An American tourist was gang-raped by a group of men in a hill resort in northern India in June. In March, a British woman jumped out of her hotel balcony in Uttar Pradesh state to escape a feared sexual assault.

AP