Muslim court frees Muslim killers of Jewish American
A Pakistani court overturned the 18-year-old murder conviction of a British national for killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and reduced his death sentence to seven years for kidnapping.
Pearl was murdered in the southern city of Karachi in January 2002 while working on a story about religious extremists in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The killing created international headlines and placed enormous pressure on Pakistan to find the killers and bring them to justice.
Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national with a history of extremism, was convicted on three separate charges related to orchestrating the kidnapping and murder. He was sentenced to death for each.
The Islamic court overturned convictions for murder and terrorism, the 40-page ruling said. The third conviction, kidnapping for ransom, was downgraded to simple kidnapping, and Sheikh’s sentence was reduced to seven years. He had been imprisoned since 2002.
Three accomplices who were sentenced to life in prison at the same 2002 trial had their convictions completely overturned.
The court also said it didn’t find any evidence linking Sheikh or the others to the actual murder.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistani-court-overturns-murder-conviction-in-killing-ofwall-street-journal-reporter-11585805394
A Pakistani court overturned the 18-year-old murder conviction of a British national for killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and reduced his death sentence to seven years for kidnapping.
Pearl was murdered in the southern city of Karachi in January 2002 while working on a story about religious extremists in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The killing created international headlines and placed enormous pressure on Pakistan to find the killers and bring them to justice.
Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national with a history of extremism, was convicted on three separate charges related to orchestrating the kidnapping and murder. He was sentenced to death for each.
The Islamic court overturned convictions for murder and terrorism, the 40-page ruling said. The third conviction, kidnapping for ransom, was downgraded to simple kidnapping, and Sheikh’s sentence was reduced to seven years. He had been imprisoned since 2002.
Three accomplices who were sentenced to life in prison at the same 2002 trial had their convictions completely overturned.
The court also said it didn’t find any evidence linking Sheikh or the others to the actual murder.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistani-court-overturns-murder-conviction-in-killing-ofwall-street-journal-reporter-11585805394
