ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the release Thursday of a Pakistani-British man convicted & later acquitted in the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The court also dismissed an appeal of Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh’s acquittal filed by Pearl’s family & the Pakistani government.
A minister in the Sindh province where Sheikh is being held said the government had exhausted all options to keep him locked up. The “Supreme Court is the court of last resort,” said Murtaza Wahab, Sindh’s law minister.
“The Pearl family is in complete shock by the majority decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to acquit & release Ahmed Omer Sheikh and the other accused persons who kidnapped & killed Daniel Pearl,” the Pearl family said in a statement.
The brutality of Wall Street Journal reporter's killing shocked many in 2002, years before the Islamic State group began releasing videos of their beheadings of journalists.
Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, during which he was kidnapped. Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants & Richard C. Reid, dubbed the “shoe bomber” after his attempt to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
Sheikh long denied any involvement in Pearl’s death, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday heard that he acknowledged writing a letter in 2019 admitting a minor role — raising hopes for some that he might remain behind bars.
Sheikh has been on death row since his conviction — even after his subsequent acquittal & is currently being held in a Karachi jail. A 3-judge Supreme Court ruled 2 to 1 to uphold Sheikh’s acquittal & ordered him released.
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