The Supreme Court in Pakistan has accepted an appeal by the family of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl seeking to keep the accused on death row over the beheading of the reporter.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born Pakistani man, has been accused of killing the Wall Street Journal reporter. He has been on death row since his conviction in 2002.
The court delayed until next week hearing the appeal over the lower-court acquittal of Sheikh.
Sheikh had reportedly helped lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in which he was kidnapped.
When he was killed, Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C Reid, also known as the “Shoe Bomber”.
The lower court’s April ruling acquitted Sheikh and three other accomplices, who had been sentenced to life in jail for their role in the plot.
This despite the fact that a letter written by Sheikh on July 19, 2019 had acknowledged his involvement in Pearl’s killing.
Pearl was abducted January 23, 2002. Pakistani police sought to locate Pearl for weeks until a video received by US diplomats showed his beheading.
Source: Thanks WIONews.com