Pakistan court frees Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl – By Syed Raza Hassan, Asif Shahzad (Reuters) / January 28 2021
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has left his family in “complete shock”, lawyers said.
FILE PHOTO: A man rides a bicycle past the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, Pakistan, June 27, 2016. Picture taken June 27, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, was acquitted by a panel of three judges.
“By a majority of two to one, they have acquitted all the accused persons and ordered their release,” a provincial advocate general, Salman Talibuddin, told Reuters.
Pearl, 38, was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was kidnapped.
