A Pakistani court has ordered the release of the British Islamist militant jailed for decapitating American journalist Daniel Pearl. Ahmed...
A Pakistani court has ordered the release of the British Islamist militant jailed for decapitating American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, of Wanstead, in east London, UK, was found guilty of the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl journalist in 2002.
Sindh High Court's release order overturns a decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court that Sheikh should remain in custody, his lawyer said.
Sheikh was cleared of murder earlier this year but has been held while Mr Pearl's Pearl's parents, Judea, 83 and Ruth appeal against the acquittal.
A Pakistani court has ordered the release of British Islamist militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (pictured arriving at court in Karachi in Pakistan in 2002 under police guard) jailed for the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl
Sheikh's lawyer Mehmood A Sheikh called for his client to be released immediately.
'The detention order is struck down,' said Faisal Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer.
Sheikh will be freed until the appeal is completed, he said, but will be returned to prison if the family is successful in overturning the acquittal.
Sheikh was sentenced to death and three others were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the plot.
Daniel Pearl, 38, was abducted, his throat cut and then he was beheaded, before the footage was sent to the American Embassy
But a lower Pakistani court in April acquitted him and three others, a move that stunned the US government, Mr Pearl's family and journalism advocacy groups.
The acquittal is the subject of separate appeals by the Pakistan government and Mr Pearl's family. The government says Sheikh's release would endanger the public.
The Supreme Court will resume its hearing on January 5.
Sheikh had been convicted of helping lure Mr Pearl to a meeting in Karachi in which he was kidnapped.
This 2002 photo shows a bound Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl held in captivity before his brutal execution
The journalist had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C Reid, dubbed the Shoe Bomber after he tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.
A gruesome video of Mr Pearl's beheading was sent to the US consulate. The 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was abducted on January.
After Sheikh's acquittal in July, Pearls' father, Judea Pearl, told CBS News: 'It is a travesty of justice.
Pearl's parents, Judea, 83, and Ruth (pictured together in 2013)
'One theory is that somebody tried to take advantage of the corona situation assuming that no one will pay attention to this decision.
'And, evidently, we did pay attention.'
The Sindh High Court in April also acquitted three others accused in the case: Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib, who had been sentenced to life in prison.
Saeed Sheikh, a former student at the London School of Economics, was found to be the ringleader and sentenced to death in 2002.
In court testimony and emails released during the 2002 trial, Saeed Sheikh said he developed a personal relationship with Pearl before he was kidnapped, with both sharing their concerns about their wives, who were pregnant at the time.
Marianne Pearl gave birth to their son Adam in May 2002.
The Pearl Project, an investigative journalism team at Georgetown University, carried out a three-year investigation into Pearl's kidnapping and death.
They found the reporter was beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later described as the architect of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh seen here emerging from an armed car with two other suspects, all covered and bound for court, in February 2002
Dr Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl, speaking about his son in Miami Beach, Florida, in 2007
Mohammad is a prisoner at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Saeed Sheikh had been arrested in 1994 by Indian authorities, accused of kidnapping three Britons and an American, who were all freed unharmed, in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
In 1999, India freed Saeed Sheikh and two other militants in exchange for the release of 155 passengers and crew aboard an Indian Airlines plane hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
However, in January of 2011, a report published by the Pearl Project suggested the wrong people had been convicted.
Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman starring in A Mighty Heart, a 2007 film about Pearl's kidnapping
It had been led by Asra Nomani, a friend and former Wall Street Journal colleague of Pearl's.
Nomani had been helped in the investigation by a Georgetown University professor.
The investigation made claims Pearl had been killed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and not Sheikh.
Though there are questions as to the extent of Sheikh's direct involvement in Pearl's killing, he is said to have run a kidnapping gang targeting Westerners and handing them off to Mohammed, according to Security Journalist Duncan Gardham.
Sheikh had also been an operative for a militant group backed by the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and Pearl had been writing stories about the ISI's links to militants.
A film called A Mighty Heart was made in 2007 about Pearl's kidnapping. It starred Angelina Jolie as Pearl's French wife, Mariane.
Ruth and Judea attend the HBO Documentary Films & The Daniel Pearl Foundation Premiere Of The Journalist & The Jihadi: The Murder Of Daniel Pearl on September 13, 2006
This 2003 photo shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan
An American psychologist who talked to Mohammed said he had confessed to beheading Pearl, according to AFP.
Mohammed is due to be tried in connection to 9/11 with four others at a military court in Guantanamo in January 2021.
They are charged with war crimes like terrorism and the murder of nearly 3,000 people.
They will be the first to go on trial, nearly 20 years after the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
If found guilty they face the death penalty.
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