The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of the man convicted of beheading US journalist Daniel Pearl.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, was released by a bench of three judges. “By a majority of two to one, they have acquitted all the accused persons and ordered their release,” provincial advocate general Salman Talibuddin said. “The court has come out to say that there is no offence that he has committed in this case,” Mahmood Sheikh, who represented Sheikh, said. He added that the court had ordered that three others, who had been sentenced to life in prison for their part in Pearl’s kidnapping and death, also be freed.
An SHC division bench on April 2, 2020, had commuted the death sentence of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to seven years and acquitted three others who were serving life terms. The PPP-led provincial government had swiftly challenged the April 2 order in the Supreme Court. The Sindh government had also immediately detained the four men under Section 3 (1) of West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960.
“The decision is a complete travesty of justice and the release of these killers puts in danger journalists everywhere and the people of Pakistan,” the Pearl family said in a statement released by their lawyer. Faisal Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said the only legal avenue following the court’s decision upholding Sheikh’s acquittal would be to ask for a review of the court decision. However, he said the review would be conducted by the same court that upheld the appeal. “In practical terms there is no further legal avenues to pursue in Pakistan,” he said. Earlier, the United States had said that it may seek to try Sheikh if efforts to keep him in prison failed.