|
PAKISTAN: SUPREME COURT ORDERS MAN ACQUITTED IN PEARL MURDER OFF DEATH ROW
February 3, 2021: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on 2 February 2021 ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government “safe house.”
Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under guard and will not be allowed to leave the safe house, but he will be able to have his wife and children visit him.
“It is not complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom,” said Sheikh’s father, Ahmad Saeed Sheikh, who attended the hearing.
The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order on 28 January upheld his acquittal in the death of Pearl, triggering outrage by Pearl’s family and the US administration.
In a final effort to overturn the acquittal, Pakistan’s government as well as the Pearl family filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl’s murder. The family’s lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, however, said such a review had a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Sheikh’s acquittal sit on the review panel.
Sheikh had long denied any involvement in Pearl’s death, but the Supreme Court on 27 January heard that he acknowledged writing a letter in 2019 admitting a minor role.
Last week’s ruling that exonerated Sheikh also exonerated another three men accused in Pearl’s murder who had been serving life sentences. It wasn’t clear whether they would be freed or also moved to a safe house.
Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said the original murder trial back in 2002 charged all four as one, which complicated the case and allowed the court to free all if there was doubt about the guilt of even one of the suspects. (Sources: Ap, 02/02/2021)
|
