Daniel Pearl: Pakistan’s highest court frees men convicted of kidnapping and murdering American journalist

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Pearl was working as the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief in 2002 when he was kidnapped in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi while reporting on Richard Reid, the British terrorist known as of “shoe bomber”.

The high-profile kidnapping has attracted international attention, amid growing concern over the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism.

The attackers then filmed Pearl’s beheading and sent it to US authorities. It was one of the first propaganda videos targeting hostages created by extremists and helped inspire other terrorist groups to film horrific and egregious acts of violence.

Four men were arrested in 2002 and convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Pearl. One of them, British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was sentenced to death.

In April last year, a high court in Sindh province, where Karachi is located, overturned the convictions of three of the four men and reduced Sheikh’s sentence to seven years in prison, meaning that he was eligible for release at the end of his sentence.

The court said the men had “suffered irreparable harm and extreme prejudice” after spending 18 years behind bars previously, and in December ordered the release of the four, but the Pearl family and Pakistani authorities appealed. before the country’s Supreme Court, which on Thursday ruled against them.

According to a statement by lawyer Faisal Siddique Said, the family was “completely in shock” by the majority’s decision, which they called a “complete parody of justice” which would endanger journalists and the Pakistani people.

The statement urged the US government “to take all necessary measures under the law to correct this injustice” and added that the family hoped the Pakistani authorities would act as well.

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