Four convicted for Delhi gang rape

Four men have been found guilty of the fatal gang rape of a student in the Indian capital Delhi last December, the BBC reported. 

The 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted on a bus and died two weeks later.

Her death led to days of huge protests across India in a wave of unprecedented anger.

The case forced the introduction of tough new laws to punish sexual offences. The four men are expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta denied charges including rape and murder, and lawyers for three of the men said they would appeal against the convictions.

They face the death penalty over the attack on the physiotherapy student after being found guilty of rape, murder and destruction of evidence.

Dozens of reporters as well as protesters calling for harsh sentencing gathered outside the court to await the verdict.

"Hang Them! Hang Them! Hang Them!" the demonstrators chanted soon after the verdict was passed down.

"I convict all of the accused. They have been found guilty of gang rape, unnatural offences, destruction of evidence... and for committing the murder of the helpless victim," Judge Yogesh Khanna pronounced.

Arguments ahead of sentencing will begin on Wednesday morning, he said.

The rapists were on an out-of-service bus when they tricked the 23-year-old woman and a male friend into boarding it.

Police said the assailants beat both of them and then raped the woman. She died in a Singapore hospital on 29 December - 10 days after the attack - from massive internal injuries.

Before she died she was able to give evidence against her attackers from her hospital bed.