4 in beheading-slay see conviction nixed

A Pakistani court on Thursday overturned the murder convictions of four men found guilty of killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whose beheading in 2002 became one of the first terrorist propaganda videos after the Sept. 11 attacks.

One of those men, British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, had been on death row for 18 years, but the court chose to convict him Thursday of the lesser charge of kidnapping and change the sentence to seven years in prison, which was expected to be counted as time served.

His three accomplices, who were serving life sentences, also had their convictions overturned and were collectively fined $32,000.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disappointed to see justice in the murder case of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl denied by a Pakistani court today,” said Steven Butler, the committee’s Asia program coordinator.

It is not clear if the men would be immediately released. Prosecutors said they would appeal Thursday’s rulings to the country’s Supreme Court.

Pearl (inset), who was 38, disappeared on Jan. 23, 2002 while working on a story about religious extremists in Pakistan. One of the people he was researching was “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who was arrested with explosives in his shoes during a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

Authorities said Saeed, who studied at the London School of Economics, lured the American journalist into captivity by promising an interview with an Islamic cleric.

A video received by U.S. authorities in February 2002 confirmed that Pearl had in fact died after days in captivity.