Nineteen years after the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted, Thursday, January 28, the Pakistani-British extremist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main accused in this case.

She also ordered his immediate release and that of three suspected accomplices.

The court ruled that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had committed "no offense in this case" and should "be immediately released", said Mahmood Sheikh, one of the accused's lawyers.

Upon news of this acquittal, the United States said it was "outraged" by the acquittal for a "brutal murder that shocked the world."

"We call on the Pakistani government to swiftly consider its legal options, including allowing the United States to prosecute Omar Sheikh for the brutal murder of an American citizen and journalist," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at the meeting. of a press conference.

"This decision to exonerate and release Omar Sheikh and the other suspects is an affront to victims of terrorism all over the world, including Pakistan," he added.

02:20

"For the benefit of the doubt"

In April, the High Court of Sindh Province, in the south of the country, overturned the death sentence - handed down in 2002 - for the murder of Omar Sheikh, 47, and commuted his sentence to seven years in prison for kidnapping. , a period covered by his 18 years in detention.

But the province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, as well as the parents of Daniel Pearl and the accused himself had appealed to the Supreme Court.

Two of the three Supreme Court judges dismissed the first two appeals, but accepted the accused's appeal against his kidnapping conviction "for the benefit of the doubt", acquitting him of all charges.

The Court also confirmed the acquittal, decided by the same Sindh court, of three of his alleged accomplices.

Salman Saquib, Fahad Nasim and Sheikh Adil were sentenced in July 2002 to life imprisonment for having sent e-mails claiming the kidnapping of the journalist.

On Thursday, the government of Sindh province announced that it would file a request to review the verdict of Pakistan's Supreme Court.

"A parody of justice"

Daniel Pearl's family have spoken of a "parody of justice" that "endangers journalists everywhere", calling on US authorities to intervene.

Reporters Without Borders said the judgment "will remain a symbol of absolute impunity for violent crimes against journalists in this country".

The April judgment had already been denounced by the US State Department, which saw it as "an affront to the victims of terrorism in the world".

In December, acting US Justice Minister Jeffrey Rosen said the US was ready to ensure that Omar Sheikh could "stand trial" there.

Daniel Pearl, 38, correspondent for the American daily The Wall Street Journal, disappeared on January 23, 2002 in Karachi, where he was preparing to meet an Islamist leader.

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

After a month of uncertainty about his fate, his death was confirmed by the sending to the American consulate in Karachi of a video tape showing him slaughtered, then beheaded.

The role of Omar Sheikh

Born in London into a wealthy Pakistani family, Omar Sheikh had studied at the London School of Economics (LSE), before approaching Islamist circles and participating in other kidnappings of Westerners.

During an initial court appearance in Karachi, a week before the video was released, he boasted of orchestrating the kidnapping, claiming the journalist was dead.

But then he kept denying the facts.

His lawyer, however, admitted this week before the Supreme Court that Omar Sheikh had admitted to playing a "minor role" in the case, in a letter sent in 2019 to the High Court of Sindh.

Daniel Pearl's family lawyers have argued that Omar Sheikh had played a key role in the journalist's kidnapping and detention, before having him executed.

The defendant's defenders, on the contrary, claimed that he was just a scapegoat and was initially convicted on the basis of insufficient evidence.

An independent investigation carried out during three years within the framework of the "Pearl Project" had shown in 2011 that Omar Sheikh had not killed the journalist himself, but had accused him of having ordered his execution.

According to Asra Nomani, a former colleague and friend of Daniel Pearl, who led this investigation, it is Pakistani Khaled Sheikh Mohammed (KSM according to his initials in English), the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, who had executed it.

KSM, arrested in Pakistan in 2003, is being held in the US prison at Guantanamo, Cuba.

A psychologist who had questioned him claimed that the detainee had confessed to him that he had beheaded the American journalist.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR