Pakistan SC sets Omar Sheikh free

UK-born ultra accused of killing Pearl

Islamabad, Jan. Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed appeals against the acquittal of Britishborn al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 and ordered his release in the sensational case.

Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the links between the country's powerful spy agency ISI and alQaeda. Sheikh and his three aides were convicted and sentenced in the abduction and murder case of Pearl in Karachi in 2002.

Pearl's murder took place three years after Sheikh, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was released by India in 1999 and given safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the nearly

150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814.

He was serving a prison term in India for kidnappings of Western tourists in the country.

A three-judge bench of the apex court led by Justice Mushir Alam on Thursday dismissed the Sindh government's appeal against the Sindh High Court's (SHC) decision to overturn the conviction of Sheikh in the Pearl murder case. The beheading of the American journalist in

2002 had grabbed international headlines.

According to the short

28:

verdict, the bench also directed to release the suspect. One member of the bench opposed the decision.

The bench upheld the SHC order by rejecting the appeals and ordered Sheikh should be set free, his lawyer Mahmood Sheikh told the media.

In April 2020, a twojudge Sindh High Court bench commuted the death sentence of 46year-old Sheikh to

seven

The court also acquitted his three aides — Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib —who were serving life terms in the case, almost two decades after they were found guilty and jailed. The Sindh government and family of Pearl filed petitions in the apex court, challenging the high court verdict.

years

imprisonment.