Pakistani court overturns Omar Sheikh's death sentence in Daniel Pearl case

In this file photo taken on March 29, 2002, Pakistani police surround handcuffed Omar Sheikh as he comes out of a court in Pakistan's port city of Karachi. (AFP)

• Sindh High Court gives Sheikh seven years in prison for kidnapping Pearl, acquits three co-accused
• In 2002, Sheikh was convicted for Pearl’s kidnapping and murder with three other men who got life in prison

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday overturned the death sentence of Ahmed Omar Sheikh, the main accused in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and acquitted three others accused in the case, Sheikh’s lawyer said.
In July 2002, British-born militant Sheikh was convicted for Pearl’s kidnapping and murder with three other men, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Adil, who were sentenced to life in prison.
Last month, a two-judge bench of the Sindh High Court had reserved judgment on appeals submitted by the convicts 18 years ago.
A Wall Street Journal reporter, Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story on militancy, and was beheaded on February 1.
“No evidence has been brought by the prosecution to link any of the appellants to the murder of Pearl and as such a the appellants are acquitted of murder [under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code],” the high court ruled in its 40-page written order issued later in the evening.
The court also turned kidnapping for ransom -- punishable by death -- into a simple kidnapping case with seven-year imprisonment.
“The accused had appealed the trial court’s [2002] decision, judgment on which was announced today,” Sheikh’s lawyer Khawaja Naveed Ahmed told Arab News.
“It could not be proved that the accused had murdered Pearl so they are acquitted but since the charges of 365 [a law on kidnapping] have been proved against Ahmed Omar Sheikh, he has been handed seven years imprisonment,” Ahmed said, adding that the government could appeal the Sindh court’s decision in the Supreme Court. If the government didn’t move the upper court, he said, all four accused would be released as they had already spent 18 years in jail.
Speaking to Arab News, Sindh's Prosecutor General Faiz Shah said the government would request the Supreme Court of Pakistan to suspend the high court’s order and prevent the release of the accused.
“We will file an appeal in the apex court as soon as we get the court’s judgment,” he added.