LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The sister of American journalist Daniel Pearl has said Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, the British-born Pakistani convicted for her brother’s 2002 kidnapping and beheading, was the mastermind behind the plot, “no matter what any court said.”
On Thursday, in a decision that has stunned the United States government, the Pearl family and journalism advocacy groups, all four men originally arrested and charged with Pearl’s abduction and murder were ordered free by the Pakistani Supreme Court.
The court also dismissed separate appeals against Sheikh’s acquittal filed by Pearl’s family and the provincial government of Pakistan’s Sindh province.
“We all know that Omar Saeed Sheikh was the mastermind of Danny’s kidnapping,” Tamara Pearl told Arab News 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,” Pearl’s sister said. “Neither verdict would have brought Danny back but lies are corrosive. We trust that somehow truth will prevail.”
In 2002, just months after his arrest, Sheikh was sentenced to death and three other suspects to life in prison for their roles in the plot to kill Pearl. Last April, however, a lower court acquitted them in a shocking turn in the 18-year-old case.
The acquittal was appealed separately in the Supreme Court by Pearl’s family and the Sindh government. Both appeals were rejected on Thursday by a three-judge bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, that also ordered Sheikh be released.
Late on Thursday, the Pakistan government, through the office of the attorney general, said it fully supported the Sindh government with regards the Pearl case and would file at the earliest a “petition seeking review and recall of the order of acquittal passed by the Supreme Court.”
The White House has also expressed outrage over the Supreme Court’s order, with spokeswoman Jen Psaki calling the decision “an affront to terror victims everywhere” and saying Washington was “committed to securing justice for Daniel Pearl’s family.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States recognized past Pakistani actions to hold Sheikh accountable and appreciated that he currently remained detained under Pakistani law.
“We take note of the Attorney General’s statement that he intends to seek review and recall of the decision,” Blinken said in a statement. “We are also prepared to prosecute Sheikh in the United States for his horrific crimes against an American citizen.”
But Sheikh’s lawyer told Arab News there was no chance his client could be extradited to the US or tried there.
“Under what provision they [US] want him [Sheikh] extradited, for what offense and on what charge,” said Mahmood A. Sheikh, who is not related to his client. “This is not a trial which was done behind the back of the US government. The US participated in this trial by sending a contingent of FBI officers to Pakistan who along with the police investigated the case. They appeared as witnesses in the trial court.”
He also said there could be no “double jeopardy” under Pakistani law.
“If a person has been acquitted or convicted after a due trial in Pakistan, he cannot be charged and tried for that offense again,” the lawyer said. “Similar provision is available in the US constitution ... So the United States government may have a desire and wish to lay its hands on this person, but this won’t happen.”
“The Pakistan government will honor its own constitution,” the lawyer said, “and will not enter into any scheme to defeat the fundamental rights of its own citizens.”
On Wednesday, Sheikh’s lawyer had admitted that his client had written a letter telling a court that he played a “minor” role in Pearl’s killing. The letter was submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court nearly two weeks ago but it wasn’t until Wednesday this week that Sheikh’s lawyer confirmed his client wrote it.
The three-page letter addressed to the Sindh High Court does not elaborate or say exactly what Sheikh’s alleged “minor” role in Pearl’s slaying was.
Omar Sheikh masterminded my brother’s kidnapping, truth will prevail — Daniel Pearl’s sister
https://arab.news/rnkux
Omar Sheikh masterminded my brother’s kidnapping, truth will prevail — Daniel Pearl’s sister
- Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of Sheikh who was convicted in the 2002 beheading of the American journalist
- Pakistan government says will file at the earliest a "petition seeking review and recall of order of acquittal passed by the Supreme Court"
Security forces kill nine Pakistani Taliban militants in restive northwest, military says
- The militants were killed in separate operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu districts
- Pakistan this week summoned Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission to demand action against the Pakistani Taliban
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan security forces have killed nine Pakistani Taliban militants in two separate engagements in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the military said on Sunday, amid a surge in militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan.
Four militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in KP's Dera Ismail Khan, while five other Pakistani Taliban members were gunned in an exchange of fire with security forces in the Bannu district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing.
Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the deceased "Indian-sponsored" militants, who remained actively involved in numerous activities against security forces and law enforcement agencies and target killing of civilians. There was no immediate response from India to the statement.
"Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian sponsored kharja [militant] found in the area," the ISPR said in a statement. "Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out menace of foreign sponsored and supported terrorism from the country."
KP has seen a surge in militancy in recent years, with the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and other militant groups frequently targeting security forces convoys and check-posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.
Pakistan this week summoned Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission and demanded “decisive action” against the TTP after four Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on a military camp in KP’s North Waziristan district that also killed four assailants, according to the Pakistani foreign office.
Islamabad has long accused Kabul of allowing its soil and India of backing militant groups, including the TTP, for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi have consistently denied this.
The uptick in militant violence triggered fierce clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Oct. The two countries agreed to a ceasefire in Doha on Oct. 19, but tensions remain high between the neighbors.
