ISLAMA BATH (AP) – The Pakistani Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of a Pakistani man convicted in 2002 and later acquitted of the gruesome beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
The court also rejected an appeal of the acquittal of Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh by Pearl’s family and the Pakistani government.
Sheikh has been on death row since being convicted of Pearl’s death in 2002. His lawyer said Sheikh “should not have spent a single day in jail.”
Lawyer Mehmood A. Sheikh, no relationship, said the court also ordered that three other Pakistanis sentenced to life in prison should be released for their part in the kidnapping and death of Pearl.
“Today’s ruling is a complete mockery of justice and the release of these killers is endangering journalists everywhere and the people of Pakistan,” the Pearl family said in a statement released by their lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi. is.
The high court with three judges ruled 2 to 1 in favor of upholding Sheikh’s acquittal and ordering his release, Siddiqi said.
Washington had earlier said it would demand that Sheikh be extradited to the United States for trial. There was no immediate response from the U.S. embassy to the court order that upheld the appeal.
‘We call on the US Government to take all necessary steps under the law to rectify this injustice. “We also hope that the Pakistani authorities will take all necessary steps to restore this justice,” the Pearl family said.
Siddiqi, the Pearl Family Advocate, said the only legal way to the court’s decision to uphold Sheikh’s acquittal is to review the court ruling. However, he said the review would be done by the same court that upheld the appeal. “In practical terms,” there are no further legal avenues in Pakistan, he said.
Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, during which he was abducted. Pearl investigated the connection between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, known as the ‘Shoe Bomber’, after trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
Pearl disappeared on January 23 while investigating militant ties with the so-called shoe bomber. His body was discovered in a shallow grave shortly after a gruesome video of his beheading was delivered at the US consulate in Karachi.