Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 7 (ANI): In another victory for terrorists in Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh convicted of the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl could walk free soon. Recently, the Supreme Court refused a government request to suspend a lower court’s ruling exonerating Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh of Pearl’s murder before a 90-day detention order expires on Thursday.
Though they will remain in jail for three more months after that Sheikh and three more terrorists might be free to go. It is believed that Sheikh has not been released yet due to US pressure. Pearl’s parents have filed an appeal to Pakistan‘s Supreme Court challenging the lower court’s ruling. “It is a travesty of justice,” Pearls’ father, Judea Pearl, told CBS News correspondent Imtiaz Tyab. “One theory is that somebody tried to take advantage of the corona situation. Assuming that no one will pay attention to this decision. And, evidently, we did pay attention.”
Back in 2002, Pearl, the 38-year-old journalist of The Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story of terror groups’ links to Al Qaeda. On April 2 this year, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench overturned the death sentence of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted in Pearl’s murder.
The court also acquitted his three aides who were serving life sentences in the case. Thereafter, the four acquitted men were re-arrested, only a day after SHC overturned their convictions. The Sindh government had challenged its provincial high court’s order in the Pakistan Supreme Court.
The US House Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs has expressed its “deep concerns” over Pakistan court’s decision to overturn the conviction of Omar Saeed Sheikh for the abduction and killing of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
Chairman of House Committee of Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engle expressed his concerns after a court overturned Omar Saeed murder and terrorism convictions and called upon Pakistan to demonstrate real commitment in addressing its terrorism problem. (ANI)
