Pak SC rejects Sindh govt's petition against acquittal of convicts in Daniel Pearl murder case
Jun 01, 2020
Islamabad [Pakistan], June 1 : The Pakistan Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition by the Sindh government to annul the provincial High Court's verdict in the murder case of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.
The Sindh High Court had acquited all the four convicts -- British-born al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others in connection with kidnapping and murder of the reporter.
During the hearing on Monday, Justice Manzoor Malik of the Supreme Court stated that the petition cites irrelevant provisions of the law to support its assertion, Pakistan Today reported.
"First of all, the kidnapping (of Daniel Pearl) must be legally proved. Evidence must suggest that the abductee was Daniel Pearl," Justice Malik said.
He further said, "The Sindh government claims that a conspiracy was hatched in Rawalpindi. What conspiracy took place in Rawalpindi must also be proved with evidence."
Back in 2002, Pearl, the 38-year-old journalist of The Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story of terror groups' links to Al Qaeda.
On April 2 this year, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench overturned the death sentence of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted in Pearl's murder.
The court also acquitted his three aides who were serving life sentences in the case.
Thereafter, the four acquitted men were re-arrested, only a day after SHC overturned their convictions. The Sindh government had challenged its provincial high court's order in the Pakistan Supreme Court.
The Pakistan Interior Ministry said in a statement that the men's release had been halted after they were re-arrested through a measure, allowing the government to hold the convicts for three months.
The ministry said it "reiterates its commitment to follow the due process under the laws of the country to bring terrorists to the task."
