Pakistani court orders man charged in Daniel Pearl's murder freed
Karachi, Pakistan — A provincial court in Pakistan on Thursday ordered the release of a British-born Pakistani man charged in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. The Sindh High Court's release order overturns government orders that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key suspect in Pearl's slaying, remain in custody.
Sheikh was acquitted earlier this year of murdering Pearl but has been held while Pearl's family appeals the acquittal.
"The detention order is struck down," said Faisal Siddiqi, the family's lawyer. He said Sheikh would be freed until the appeal is completed, but would return to prison if the family is successful in overturning the acquittal.
However, Siddiqi said, the Sindh provincial government is appealing the order to release Sheikh.
Sheikh's lawyer, Mehmood A. Sheikh, with whom he is not related, called for his client's immediate release.
The court order, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said the provincial government's detention orders were illegal and that neither the provincial nor the federal government had cause to keep Sheikh or three others, also charged in Pearl's murder, behind bars.
Sheikh was sentenced to death and the others to life in prison for their role in the plot. But in April, the Sindh High Court acquitted them, a move that stunned the U.S. government, Pearl's family and journalism advocacy groups.
Attorney Sheikh, who represents all four, said the court found there is "no valid reason for depriving them of their freedom," according to Agence France-Presse.
"The release might take place today and if not then it is in the next 24 hours. There is no legal hitch in setting them free," AFP quoted him as saying.
Their acquittal is now being appealed separately by both the Pakistani government and Pearl's family. The government has opposed Sheikh's release, saying it would endanger the public. The Supreme Court will resume its hearing on January 5.
Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said he expects the appeal to be decided by the Supreme Court by the end of January.
Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, in which he was kidnapped. Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the "Shoe Bomber" after trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
A gruesome video of Pearl's beheading was sent to the U.S. consulate in February 2002. The 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter from Encino, California was abducted January 23, 2002.
In Sheikh's original trial, emails between Sheikh and Pearl presented in court showed Sheikh gained Pearl's confidence by sharing their experiences as both waited for the birth of their first child. Pearl's wife, Marianne Pearl, gave birth to a son, Adam, in May 2002.
The Pearl Project, an investigative journalism team at Georgetown University, carried out a three-year investigation into Pearl's kidnapping and death. It concluded the reporter was beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later described as the architect of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Mohammad is a prisoner at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.