On Thursday, a Pakistani High Court in Sindh passed an order calling for the release of the four men convicted of kidnapping and murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was investigating links between the Pakistani ISI and the al-Qaeda before being killed in 2002.
Amongst the four accused was British national and Al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who had previously been arrested by Indian authorities for kidnapping foreign tourists in New Delhi. However, Sheikh, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar, was released in exchange for 150 passengers of an Indian Airlines flight that had been hijacked to pressure the Indian government into the exchange.
According to the court, the detention of the four accused was “illegal”. The order further said that the four accused had “suffered irreparable harm and extreme prejudice”, as they had spent 18 years in prison before being acquitted. The two-judge bench also declared all documents by the Sindh government relating to the four accused’s’ detention as “null and void”. The accused’s lawyer argued that the four individuals were being used as scapegoats and that there was “no valid reason for depriving them of their freedom.”. However, the court conceded that in a situation where the Supreme Court passes a restraining order on their detention, the release must be halted.
Consequently, the Sindh government said that it would not order the release of the accused. To justify this, the authorities cited the Supreme Court’s September 28 order, which said that the four accused will remain in custody until the conclusion of the hearing of the appeal by the Sindh Government and Pearl’s family against the Sindh High Court’s order that ordered their acquittal.
Furthermore, on Friday, the United States (US) State Department, condemned the Sidh High Court’s order, saying, “We are deeply concerned by the reports of the December 24 ruling of Sindh High Court to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. We have been assured that the accused have not been released at this time.” The statement also reiterated the American government’s support to Pearl’s family in their bid to secure justice for the “courageous journalist”.
This will no doubt act as a major setback to Pakistan’s goal of erasing its reputation as a state sponsor of terrorism. In October, the Imran Khan-led government’s efforts to take itself off the “Grey List” of the Financial Action Task Force, an international terror financing and money laundering watchdog, failed, with the body announcing that Pakistan would continue to remain on its “grey list” or the list of “jurisdictions under increased monitoring”.
Pakistan was put on the “grey list” in June 2018, after India, who was supported by the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and other European countries, highlighted the “strategic deficiencies” in Pakistan’s handling of the Anti Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism AML/CFT regime. In fact, Daniel Pearl’s murder, along with the 26/11 terror attacks and the Pulwama attack, was one of the incidents cited by India while garnering international support against Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terrorism in South Asia before the forum.
Pakistani Court Orders Release of Men Convicted in Murder of US Journalist Daniel Pearl
A Pakistani High Court ordered the release of four men who had been previously convicted for their involvement in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, calling their detention “illegal”.
December 28, 2020
SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES