Karachi (AFP)

A British extremist, sentenced to death in 2002 for the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl that year, has had his sentence overturned by a court in southern Pakistan.

The death sentence imposed on Omar Sheikh, also known as Sheikh Omar or Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, was commuted to 7 years in prison, a period covered by his 18 years already in detention, his lawyer Khawja Naveed told AFP. The information was also reported by several Pakistani media.

The prosecution was not available to comment. The court has yet to issue a release order, the lawyer said.

Three other men, Salman Saquib, Fahad Nasim and Sheikh Adil, sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2002 in this case, for having sent e-mails claiming kidnapping in particular, were all acquitted, added Mr. Naveed.

According to the Pakistani media, these decisions were taken by two judges of the High Court of Sindh, province of South Pakistan, of which Karachi is the capital.

Daniel Pearl, a 38-year-old American Jew, correspondent for the American daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal, disappeared on January 23, 2002 in Karachi, after informing his wife Mariane, then six months pregnant, that he was going to meet an Islamist leader.

He was investigating Islamist networks, then very established in Karachi and likely to have links with Al-Qaeda, the network of Osama bin Laden, a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

His abduction had been claimed by an unknown organization, which called for the release of the Pakistanis captured by the Americans during the military campaign in Afghanistan which started at the end of 2001, most of whom were detained at the Guantanamo base in Cuba.

After a month of suspense, his death was announced by the sending to the American consulate of Karachi of a videotape, showing Daniel Pearl slaughtered, then beheaded.

- Son of a good family -

Sheikh Omar, 29-year-old Islamist activist and holder of dual Pakistani and British nationality, son of a good family born in Great Britain where he grew up and studied, violently anti-American, was considered the brain of the kidnapping by Pakistani justice.

During a first appearance in court after his arrest, he had, according to the prosecution, admitted to being the sponsor. But during the trial, he kept denying the facts.

On the day of his conviction, he threatened the Pakistani authorities with reprisals. "We will see who dies first, me or the authorities who arranged my death sentence," he wrote in a message read by one of his lawyers.

He then appealed. But his trial had been adjourned dozens of times.

In February 2016, the Pakistani army said it had defeated an attack project involving several extremist organizations and two car bombs to escape him from the central prison of Hyderabad, where he was detained.

An independent investigation carried out for three years within the framework of the "Pearl Project" had however determined in 2011 that the Pakistani justice had gone astray, the four men condemned for the assassination of Daniel Pearl were not even present during his execution .

According to Asra Nomani, a former colleague and a friend of the journalist of the Wall Street Journal, who had directed this investigation, it is indeed Khaled Cheikh Mohammed (KSM according to his initials in English), the brain self-claimed of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the States United, who executed him.

"KSM", arrested in 2003, is imprisoned in the American prison at Guantanamo. A psychologist who interviewed him said that the inmate had confessed to him that he had beheaded Daniel Pearl.

© 2020 AFP