SC adjourns hearing in Daniel Pearl murder case for today

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court adjourned until today (Wednesday) hearing in murder of US Journalist Daniel Pearl. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam, heard the criminal petition filed by the Government of Sindh for leave to appeal under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against the impugned judgment passed by Sindh High Court on April, 2. The court directed Farooq H Naek, counsel for Sindh Government to explain the errors made in the judgment passed by the Sindh High Court. Farooq H Naek argued before the court and submitted that the prime accused Ahmed Omar Sheikh along with other three accused were arrested in the instant matter while seven others were absconders. He further submitted that Daniel Pearl, a US journalist, was working with the Wall Street Journal.

He submitted that the accused persons made a plan for kidnapping the journalist in Rawalpindi adding that later on after kidnapping the journalist, the accused persons demanded ransom through email from his spouse. The counsel for Sindh Government contended that later when the spouse of the journalist refused to give the ransom amount killed him, adding that a video of his killing was also released by the accused persons that led to creating panic in the society.

Farooq H Naek told the court that he will also give evidences in detail. The court asked the learned counsel, apart from giving evidences, he should also inform it about the errors made by the High Court in its impugned judgment.

On April 2, a two-member bench of the High Court, headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, had overturned the death sentence for British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted 18 years ago by an anti-terrorism court in the kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl. The accused had filed an appeal in the High Court against their conviction by the trial after finding them guilty of abducting and killing Pearl. The court had also overturned the conviction of three other men, Fahad Nassem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil in the case. The court had held that three of the four accused were ‘not guilty’ while the prime accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh’s death sentence has been overturned into a 7-year jail sentence.

Danie Pearl was doing research on religious extremism when he was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002. Next month, a video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate, followed by the arrest of Ahmed Omar Sheikh, a Pakistani British, who was later sentenced to death by a trial court. The Sindh Government, however, through Prosecutor General Fiaz Shah, had challenged the SHC verdict in Supreme Court on April 22, contending that the High Court had erred in dealing with the legal question of burden of proof as the prosecution had safely discharged the burden to prove the guilt of the accused/respondents by producing cogent and sufficient evidence.