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US ‘outraged’ over Pakistan SC acquitting Daniel Pearl’s killers: White House
The White House has expressed âoutrageâ over the Pakistan Supreme Courtâs decision acquitting those involved in the sensational kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl in 2002 and said that the judgement is an affront to terrorism victims everywhere. Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the links between the country s powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.
Pakistan s Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed appeals against the acquittal of British-born al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in the kidnapping and murder case of Pearl and ordered his release, a judgement denounced by the American journalist s family as a complete travesty of justice.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday pledged to rebuild and revitalise the transatlantic military alliance after a bruising.
“We all know that Omar Saeed Sheikh was the mastermind of Danny’s kidnapping,” she told the newspaper on Friday. “His lies lured Danny into an interview in Karachi on January 23, 2002 and a month later Danny was dead. Three months later his body was found in an unmarked grave. This is the truth, no matter what any court says.”
“The defendants in this court case and the justices who acquitted them know that this is the truth, but the lies continue,” she added. “Neither verdict would have brought Danny back but lies are corrosive. We trust that somehow truth will prevail.”
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Islamabad, January 28
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed appeals against the acquittal of British-born al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 and ordered his release in the sensational case.
Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the links between the country’s powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.
Sheikh and his three aides were convicted and sentenced in the abduction and murder case of Pearl in Karachi in 2002.
Pearl’s murder took place three years after Sheikh, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was released by India in 1999 and given safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the nearly 150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814.
Mehmood A. Sheikh, defence lawyer for Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, speaks to journalists outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. AP
ISLAMABAD: The counsel for parents of Daniel Pearl on Wednesday referred to a July 25, 2019, letter in which the principal accused, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, had conceded his minor role in the US journalist’s murder.
The letter, presented before the Supreme Court by counsel Faisal Siddiqui, was addressed to the Sindh High Court. The accused had acknowledged that his role in the issue was relatively minor and did not warrant death sentence or even the amount of time he had already served in prison, mostly in solitary confinement.