ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of a convicted Pakistani and later acquitted of the beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The court also dismissed the appeal of the acquittal of Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh by the Pearl family and the Pakistani government.
Sheikh has been sentenced to death since his conviction for Pearl’s death in 2002. His lawyer said Sheikh “shouldn’t have spent a day in jail.”
Lawyer Mehmood A. Sheikh, unrelated, said the court also ordered the release of three other Pakistanis who had been sentenced to life in prison for their role in the kidnapping and death of Pearl.
“Today’s decision is a complete insult to justice and the release of these killers endangers journalists everywhere and the Pakistani people,” the Pearl family said in a statement released by their lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi.
The three-judge supreme court ruled 2 to 1 in favor of upholding the sheikh’s acquittal and ordered his release, Siddiqi said.
Washington previously said it would demand the extradition of the sheikh to the United States to be tried there. The U.S. embassy did not immediately react to the court order confirming the appeal.
“We urge the U.S. government to take all necessary action under the law to correct this injustice. We also expect the Pakistani authorities to take all necessary steps to rectify this disguise of justice,” the Pearl family said.
Siddiqi, the Pearl family’s lawyer, said the only legal way after the court’s decision to uphold Sheikh’s acquittal would be to seek a review of the court decision. However, she said the review would be carried out by the same court that upheld the appeal. “In practical terms” there are no more legal avenues to follow in Pakistan, he said.
Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the port city of Karachi in southern Pakistan, during which he was kidnapped. Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the “shoe bomber” after attempting to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
Pearl disappeared on January 23 while investigating militant links to the so-called shoe bomber. His body was discovered in a shallow grave shortly after a horrific video of his beheading was delivered to the US consulate in Karachi.