New Delhi , India ( CNN ) -- An Indian court Saturday convicted a teenage boy for his part in the gang rape last December of a medical student who later died of her injuries , sentencing him to three years in prison . The sentence drew immediate protests outside the court and from the victim 's family , who feel it is too lenient for a crime that shocked the city and prompted a nationwide debate over the treatment of women and the handling of sexual assaults . The teenager was convicted of murder , rape and robbery . His trial was in juvenile court because he was 17 at the time of the crime , and the three-year sentence is the maximum allowed under the court 's rules . Protesters in the street outside the court raised their fists and shouted , `` We want justice ! '' If the teenager was old enough to commit the crime , they said , then he is old enough to have been tried as an adult and face the death penalty . The victim 's parents attended the trial and said they plan to appeal . `` We want him to be hanged , '' the victim 's visibly upset mother told reporters . `` I am not at all happy with this verdict . By not punishing this teenager , this verdict is encouraging other teenagers to indulge in such acts and does not provide any safety to girls . '' The teenager is the first of five suspects to be tried for their role in the attack , which happened December 16 on a moving bus in New Delhi . The group assaulted the 23-year-old woman and her male companion , robbing them and then dumping them at the side of the road , police said . While the man was eventually discharged from the hospital , the woman was so badly hurt that she had to be airlifted to a hospital in Singapore in `` extremely critical condition , '' doctors there said . She died two weeks later . The man said he and the young woman watched a movie before boarding a private bus to return to her home in a New Delhi suburb . The bus driver made lewd remarks and five other men taunted the couple and locked the doors , the man told Agence France-Press in January . `` They hit me with a small stick and dragged my friend to a seat near the driver 's cabin , '' the man said . Then the `` driver and the other men raped my friend and hit her in the worst possible ways in the most private parts of her body . '' The driver used an iron bar in the attack , he told the news agency . The friend said he suffered a broken leg . `` The cruelty I saw should not be seen ever . I tried to fight against the men but later I begged them again and again to leave her , '' he said . In an interview with Reuters , the man said the abductors drove the couple throughout the city for about two hours before dropping them below an overpass ; he was unable to stand and had no clothes . `` Three-wheeler taxis would slow down , take a look at us and move on , '' he said . `` So would cars and motorcycles . We got no help for nearly 20 or 25 minutes . '' When three police vehicles finally did show up , he said , `` they could n't decide among themselves which police precinct has jurisdiction . '' His friend bled profusely throughout the ordeal , he said . Despite the outrage over the attack , the problem of sexual violence in India persists . An American woman was raped in June after visiting a popular Hindu temple in northern India . After failing to find a taxi to take her back to her hotel , she accepted a ride from three men who took her to a wooded area , then raped and robbed her , authorities said . A 4-year-old girl died after being sexually assaulted by a 35-year-old man in Ghansaur in April , and a 5-year-old girl was allegedly raped two weeks earlier in New Delhi . Two men were arrested in that case . A Swiss woman and her husband who were on a cycling tour across the India were attacked by a group of men in March after they set up camp near a forest in the central part of the country . The men beat the husband and raped the wife , police said . Last week , a 23-year-old female photographer was allegedly gang-raped in Mumbai by five men , the police chief there said . The woman was on assignment with a male colleague when some men approached them , took them to a nearby mill under false pretenses , then tied them both up and raped her , Mumbai police commissioner Satypal Singh said . The woman was in stable condition after the attack . CNN 's Sumnima Udas reported from New Delhi . Melissa Gray reported and wrote from Atlanta .
The teenager is convicted of murder , rape , and robbery . His 3-year sentence prompts protests , outrage from victim 's family . He is the first of five suspects to be tried for the December attack . Comment: