The U.S. State Department says, “there must be justice” for Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002, as a Pakistani court may be on the verge of freeing his convicted kidnapper from prison.
A Pakistani court overturned in April the conviction of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Pearl, and it may allow him to walk on Thursday before the Pakistani Supreme Court takes it up for review in September. Sheikh had his death penalty sentence voided by a two-person judicial panel, which tossed most of the charges against the British-born man and reduced his sentence to seven years. Sheikh has been behind bars for 18 years. Three other men convicted in the plot — Sheikh Mohammed Adi, Fahad Saleem, and Sayed Salman Saqib — also had convictions overturned.
Pearl, a 38-year-old Jewish American, was in Karachi investigating Pakistani terrorist groups, following leads on al Qaeda and Richard Reid, the British-born “Shoe Bomber.” After being abducted, Pearl was beheaded on video by al Qaeda operatives on Feb. 1, 2002. One of the key members of that operation may now soon find himself a free man after his 90-day detention order expires Thursday and after the high court declined to take up the case until Sept. 25. Pakistan’s handling of the case has earned it the ire of Pearl’s family and the United States.
“The United States is watching this case closely,” the State Department told the Washington Examiner. “We are aware of reports that the Supreme Court did not stay the Sindh High Court’s decision to acquit those convicted in the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl. We understand that the Supreme Court set the case for a hearing on the merits in the coming months. We understand the appeal process continues and that the defendants will remain in custody. The Supreme Court has not yet rendered a decision on the appeal, that will happen after the hearing on the merits.”
The State Department spokesperson added: “There must be justice for Daniel’s kidnapping and murder, and the United States stands with the Pearl family during this arduous and painful process.”
Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who now helps direct the Daniel Pearl Project, tweeted on Monday: “On Daniel Pearl’s case, Supreme Court rules to hear appeal by Sindh govt + Danny’s dear parents in Sept to uphold guilty verdicts against Omar Sheikh + 3. Pakistan says it will keep all 4 men in jail til the case is heard. Pls stay vigilant with us! #JusticeForDanielPearl.”
Pearl’s father, Judea Pearl, responded: “Thank you Asra Nomani and all readers who have been staying vigilant with us awaiting #JusticeForDanielPearl. May reason prevail in September.”
In May, Judea Pearl said he and his wife had filed an appeal. “We ask all people of conscience to support our efforts to protect journalists from imitators of Omar Sheikh and his ilk,” he said at the time.
Sheikh’s lawyer, Mahmood Sheikh, said his client “hasn’t even seen the sun” for 18 years. According to the Associated Press, he added that “the prosecution’s cases are won or lost not on the basis of emotion, they are won or lost on the basis of evidence and in this case the prosecution did a woeful job.”
The Pakistani court reduced Sheikh’s charges in April, and the judges claimed to have found discrepancies in the evidence and said there was not enough proof directly tying Sheikh to Pearl’s killing.
“There are many missing links in the chain of evidence from the abduction of Pearl to his ultimate murder,” said the two-member bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha. Karachi’s state prosecutor, Faiz Shah, filed an appeal to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
Thomas Joscelyn, the senior editor of the Long War Journal, tweeted earlier this year that “one can only hope the U.S. is tracking this story (even with everything else going on) and making a determination on the proper response.” He said there is evidence that at least five other Pakistani terrorist groups other than al Qaeda were involved with the crimes against Pearl and noted that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, “assumed control of the operation after Pearl was kidnapped” and “later boasted that he personally killed Pearl.”
Georgetown University’s “Pearl Project” concluded in 2011 that up to 27 different men played a role in Pearl’s kidnapping and murder, including “a team of kidnappers” led by Sheikh and “a team of killers” led by Mohammed.
Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and faced harsh interrogations at secretive CIA “black sites” before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. A judge has yet to rule on whether confessions made to the FBI on the island will be admissible as defense teams seek to suppress them. Mohammed confessed to planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in a March 2007 statement to the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. He has not been charged for Pearl’s murder, though it is suspected it may happen after the 9/11 case is finished.
James Mitchell, one of the three men who waterboarded Mohammed, contended during testimony at Guantanamo Bay this year that enhanced interrogations were essential in eliciting information and that he “told us about beheading and dismembering Daniel Pearl.” Mitchell testified that “when KSM mentioned his interactions with Daniel Pearl, we were pressing him about WMD.”
The FBI has said that a vein on the arm of the man in the video decapitating Pearl matches that of Mohammed.
“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures on the internet holding his head,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed, a close ally of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, is awaiting a 2021 death penalty trial for the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
