Meanwhile, US officials have indicated they will try and launch legal proceedings against the man accused of his murder, Omar Saeed Sheikh, in the US. He denies wrongdoing. In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the US, Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl travelled to Pakistan, working on stories about militant groups. He would end up becoming their victim himself. First, haunting pictures of him in chains and with a gun to his head were released.
Then, he was beheaded. His gruesome death was filmed by the extremists, a grim precursor to the tactics that have now become a common part of the propaganda videos of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man accused of his murder, was born in Britain, where he attended a private, fee-paying school in East London, as well as the London School of Economics.
However, he was drawn into jihadist circles. In he was imprisoned in India, after allegedly kidnapping a number of Western tourists. He was freed, along with two other militants, five years later, when gunmen hijacked an airliner, forcing it to land in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and demanded the men be released in exchange for the passengers.
Police said Mr Sheikh had used a fake name and pretended to be a follower of a hard-line cleric Pearl wanted to interview. Mr Sheikh's lawyers deny he was at that meeting place, or that any conspiracy to abduct Mr Pearl was hatched there.
What is clear is that Pearl flew to the port city of Karachi expecting to conduct an interview, but instead he was kidnapped. His abductors demanded better treatment for detainees held by American forces at Guantanamo Bay, the return of all Pakistani men being held there, and bizarrely for a militant group, also called for the US to either deliver a consignment of fighter jets that had been promised to Pakistan but then halted, or return the money for them, plus interest.
In the end, Pearl was murdered, accused, as an American Jewish man, of being a Mossad agent. Following an investigation, Mr Sheikh and three other men were arrested, charged and then convicted in There seemed strong evidence that Mr Sheikh had masterminded the kidnapping, having been identified at the hotel in Rawalpindi by two separate eyewitnesses.
But the prosecution case was deeply flawed. There was no immediate reaction from the U. Embassy to the court order upholding the appeal. The Pearl family urged both the U. Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said the only legal avenue available now is to ask for a review of the court's decision to uphold Sheikh's acquittal.
However, he said the review would be conducted by the same court that made that decision. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard Sheikh admit to a minor role in Pearl's kidnapping — a dramatic turn of events after he had denied any involvement for 18 years. Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, had expected it would advance his case. Still, Siddiqi had previously said winning was an uphill battle because the prosecutor in the original case tried four men — including Sheikh — together, with the same charges against all even though each played a different role.
All four were acquitted in April by the Sindh High Court on the grounds that the initial prosecution's evidence was insufficient. During the appeal of that acquittal, Siddiqi tried to convince the Supreme Court of Sheikh's guilt on at least one of the three charges he faced, specifically the kidnapping charge, which also carries the death penalty in Pakistan.
In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday, Sheik admitted a "minor" role in the death of Washington Post reporter Pearl. That testimony was at odds with 18 years of denial about his involvement in the killing. A letter handwritten by the accused in , in which he admitted limited involvement in the killing, was submitted to Pakistan's Supreme Court nearly two weeks earlier.
Pearl was investigating the link between militants and Richard C. Reid, nicknamed the "Shoe Bomber," who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives inside his shoes. Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern port city of Karachi, where he was kidnapped. The ruling comes after an international outcry last year when a lower court acquitted the year-old of murder.
It instead reduced his conviction to a lesser charge of kidnap. The court also ordered that three other Pakistanis who were sentenced to life in prison for their part in Pearl's kidnapping and death should also be freed. Visit the new DW website Take a look at the beta version of dw. Go to the new dw.
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