Pakistan court orders immediate release of four accused in Daniel Pearl killing

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh High Court on Thursday declared “null and void” the continued detention of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Pakistani man convicted over the 2002 beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The court was hearing an appeal from the family of Sheikh against his detention despite a court acquitting him in April.
Sheikh was sentenced to death and three others to life in prison for their role in the plot in 2002. A lower Pakistani court acquitted Sheikh and three others this year, in a move that has stunned the US government, Pearl’s family and journalism advocacy groups.
The acquittal is now being appealed separately by the Pakistan government and Pearl’s family in the Supreme Court. The government has opposed Sheikh’s release from prison, saying it would endanger the public. He was to remain in custody until the appeals are resolved.
On Thursday, the Sindh court ordered the immediate release of Sheikh and three others, but said their names should be added to a no-fly list.
The men have been in rotting in jail for 18 years without committing any crime, the judge said.
Sheikh had been convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in which he was kidnapped. Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the “Shoe Bomber” after trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
Pearl, 38, of Encino, California, was abducted January 23, 2002. In Sheikh’s original trial, emails between Sheikh and Pearl presented in court showed Sheikh gained Pearl’s confidence by sharing their experiences as both waited for the birth of their first child. Pearl’s wife Marianne Pearl gave birth to a son, Adam, in May 2002.