The Sindh government on Friday appealed to the Supreme Court to review its decision to free an accused convicted of kidnapping and beheading US journalist Daniel Pearl, a day after the United States expressed ‘deep concerns’ over the ruling.
A bench of three judges of Supreme Court had on Thursday acquitted British-born Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three co-accused, who had been convicted in 2002 on charges of kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter.
The Sindh government filed a petition asking the top court to review its decision, the Pearl family’s lawyer Faisal Siddiqi and the Sindh government’s prosecutor said. “We have filed three review petitions,” prosecutor Faiz Shah said, explaining that the petitions would seek a reversal of the acquittal and the reinstatement of Sheikh’s death penalty. “Being aggrieved of and dissatisfied with the judgement, the petitioner files an instant criminal review petition for leave to appeal on matters of law, facts and grounds,” the petition seeking the reversal of the aquittal said.
Pearl, 38, was investigating militants in Karachi after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was kidnapped. A video of his beheading emerged weeks later.
His parents expressed shock over the Supreme Court’s decision, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called ‘an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan’.
A high court last year commuted Sheikh’s death penalty into a life sentence and acquitted his three co-accused, citing lack of evidence. The government and Pearl’s parents challenged that decision and pleaded to the Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty, that was turned down on Thursday.
In his first statement on Pakistan as the United States secretary of state, Antony Blinken said America was ready to prosecute Omar Saeed Sheikh in US courts. Blinken, in a statement issued by his office late on Thursday evening, said he was “deeply concerned by the Pakistani Supreme Court’s decision to acquit those involved in Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder and any proposed action to release them”. “We are also prepared to prosecute Sheikh in the United States for his horrific crimes against an American citizen,” the statement read further. “We are committed to securing justice for Daniel Pearl’s family and holding terrorists accountable.”
The chief US diplomat, who took charge of his office on Wednesday, recalled that Sheikh had been indicted in the US in 2002 for hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, resulting in the murder of Pearl, the South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, as well as the 1994 kidnapping of another American citizen in India.
Blinken termed the verdict as an “affront to terrorism victims everywhere” and said that the US expected Pakistan’s authorities to “expeditiously review its legal options to ensure justice is served”. “The court’s decision is an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan. The United States recognises past Pakistani actions to hold Omar Sheikh accountable and notes that Sheikh currently remains detained under Pakistani law,” he said.
The US state secretary expressed similar sentiments in a tweet posted on Friday, where he said, “I am deeply concerned by the Supreme Court’s decision to acquit those involved in Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder. We are committed to securing justice for the Pearl family and holding terrorists accountable.”
This is not the first time the US has offered to prosecute Sheikh in America. In a statement last month, the then US acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said America “stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here” after the SHC overturned a government detention order that Sheikh should remain in custody.
A day earlier, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US was “outraged by the Supreme Court decision to affirm the acquittals of those responsible” for Pearl’s slaying and underscored the administration’s commitment to securing justice for Pearl’s family.
