File photos of American journalist Daniel Pearl (left), who was abducted and beheaded in 2002, and British-born Pakistani Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted of masterminding the killing. Photos: The Wall Street Journal/ AFP; Aamir Qureshi/ AFP
Pakistan’s top court on Thursday ordered the release of British-born Pakistani militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted and later acquitted in the kidnap and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.The Pearl family, which had tried to challenge the acquittal last year of Sheikh and his three aides in the Pakistani Supreme Court, called the decision “a complete travesty of justice.”“The release of these killers puts in danger journalists everywhere and the people of Pakistan,” the family said in a statement released by their lawyer.Pearl, who died at 38, was working on an investigative story in Pakistan for the Wall Street Journal when he was beheaded. Sheikh was convicted of luring Pearl to a meeting in the southern port city of Karachi, where he was abducted. In December, the High Court in the Pakistani province of Sindh called the detention of Sheikh and his aides “illegal” after it reduced Sheikh’s death sentence to seven years. The court said there was enough evidence to convict Sheikh only of kidnapping, not murder. The decision meant that Sheikh, who had served 18 years in prison, would go free along with the three aids whose convictions the court overturned.The Sindh government and the family of the slain journalist challenged his acquittal in the Supreme Court. The counsel of Pearl’s parents pointed to a July 25, 2019, letter in which Sheikh admitted to his “minor role” in the murder, although he did not detail what it was.Faisal Siddiqi, Pearl’s family lawyer, said that the 2019 letter was a “dramatic development” and demanded the murder conviction and death sentence for Sheikh be reinstated. Sheikh’s lawyer claimed that his client wrote that letter under pressure and that he had no connections with Pearl. Despite Sheikh’s acquittal in April, he remained in jail after Pearl’s family lodged an appeal.Sheikh is one of the three people India released in 1999 in exchange for passengers on a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in the Afghan city of Kandahar.The Supreme Court of Pakistan also ordered that three other Pakistanis who were sentenced to life imprisonment for Pearl’s murder also be freed. Follow VICE World News on Twitter.
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