KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) – A Pakistani provincial court on Thursday ordered the release of a Pakistani man of British descent charged with the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
The Sindh High Court’s release order overturns government arrest warrants that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main suspect in Pearl’s assassination, should remain in custody. Sheikh was acquitted earlier this year of Pearl’s murder, but has been arrested while Pearl’s family is appealing the acquittal.
“The arrest warrant is overturned,” said Faisal Siddiqi, the family’s lawyer. He said the sheikh would be released until the appeal is completed, but would return to prison if the family manages to overturn the acquittal.
Still, Siddiqi said the Sindh provincial government was appealing the sheikh’s release order.
Sheikh’s lawyer, Mehmood A. Sheikh, with whom he is unrelated, called for his client’s immediate release.
The court order, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, stated that the arrest warrants of the provincial government were illegal and that neither the provincial nor the federal government had grounds to detain Sheikh or three other people, also charged with Pearl’s murder, behind bars.
Sheikh was sentenced to death and the others to life imprisonment for their role in the plot. But in April, the Sindh High Court acquitted them, a move that surprised the U.S. government, Pearl’s family and journalism advocacy groups.
Both the Pakistani government and the Pearl family are separately appealing the acquittal. The government has opposed the release of Sheikh, saying it would endanger the public. The Supreme Court will resume its hearing on January 5th.
Siddiqi, the Pearl family’s lawyer, said he expects the appeal to be resolved by the Supreme Court in late January.
Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, where 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.
A horrible video of Pearl’s beheading was sent to the American consulate. The 38-year-old Wall Street Journal journalist from Encino, California, was abducted on January 23, 2002.
In Sheikh’s original trial, the emails between Sheikh and Pearl filed in court showed that Sheikh gained Pearl’s trust by sharing their experiences while they both waited for the birth of their first child. Pearl’s wife, Marianne Pearl, gave birth to a son, Adam, in May 2002.
Evidence introduced in court accused the sheikh of luring Pearl to his death, which gave the American journalist a false sense of security, as he promised to present him with a cleric with militant ties.
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Gannon reported from Islamabad