A Pakistani court has ordered the release of a dozen men detained in connection with the 2002 gang-rape of a woman in what she said was a retaliatory "honor" attack.

The men had been jailed since March on an order that will expire next week. A court review board in Lahore on Friday denied a government request for a three-month extension, said Mohammed Shahid, a court official.

A total of 13 men were captured in 2002 after Mukhtar Mai, then 33, came forward to tell of her ordeal. She said she was raped on orders from a village council (panchayat), which said it was punishment for her brother's alleged illicit affair with a woman from another family.