Pakistan Supreme Court clears suspected murderer of journalist Daniel Pearl

Journalist Daniel Pearl's portrait on a wall in Los Angeles (illustrative image).

MARK RALSTON / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

This Thursday, January 28, the Supreme Court of Pakistan confirmed the annulment of the death sentence of a Pakistani-British extremist suspected of having kidnapped and killed American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, paving the way for his immediate release.

Publicity

Read more

The Court considered that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had committed " 

no offense in this case, 

" Mahmood Sheikh, one of the accused's lawyers, told AFP.

In April 2020, the High Court of Sindh Province (south) quashed the death sentence for murder of Omar Sheikh, 47, and commuted his sentence to seven years in prison for kidnapping, a period covered by his 18 years. in prison.

This decision was strongly denounced by the US State Department, which saw it as "

 an affront to victims of terrorism around the world 

".

Three other men, Salman Saquib, Fahad Nasim and Sheikh Adil, sentenced in July 2002 to life imprisonment for having sent e-mails claiming the journalist's kidnapping, had been acquitted by the same court.

But the province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, then the parents of Daniel Pearl, had appealed, which had led to the continued detention of the four accused, despite a new judgment of the same court in December ordering their release.

Pakistani justice had gone astray

Daniel Pearl, 38, correspondent for the American daily

The Wall Street Journal

, disappeared on January 23, 2002 in Karachi.

A video showing his beheading was submitted a month later to the United States consulate in this megalopolis in southern Pakistan.

An independent investigation carried out over three years as part of the "Pearl Project

»Had determined in 2011 that Pakistani justice had gone astray, the four men sentenced for the assassination of the journalist not even being present during his execution.

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

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

)

See also: New trial for the laundered Pakistanis for the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Pakistan

  • Justice

  • Terrorism

On the same subject

Assassination of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan: death sentence canceled for the main accused

FRANCE / JUSTICE / PAKISTAN

France: Judge Trévidic draws a parallel between the Karachi case and the death of journalist Daniel Pearl