Extremists convicted in journalist's slaying
POSTED AT 6:42 AM EDT Monday, July 15
Sheikh Aslam, brother of defendant Shaikh Adil, talks to reporters after Mr. Adil was convicted in the abduction and slaying of Daniel Pearl on Monday in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Photo: Vincent Yu/AP
Associated Press
Hyderabad, Pakistan — A Pakistani judge on Monday convicted four Islamic militants in the abduction and slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl and sentenced the British-born chief defendant to death by hanging. The others received 25-year sentences.
Pakistani authorities braced for a violent reaction by Islamic extremists, already angry over President General Pervez Musharraf's support for the United States in the war against terrorism.
Judge Ali Ashraf Shah handed down the verdict against chief defendant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and the others — Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Adil — in the heavily guarded jail where the trial was held after it was moved from Karachi for security reasons. Defence lawyers said they would appeal.
In a statement read to reporters by his lawyer, Mr. Saeed said, "we'll see who will die first, me or the authorities who have arranged the death sentence for me.
"Musharraf should know that Almighty Allah is there and can get his revenge," said Mr. Saeed, who was moved to the prison's death row along with 79 other condemned inmates. "Now the jihad between Islam and non-Muslims is going on and everybody is showing whether he is in favour of Islam or in favour of the non-believers."
Mr. Saeed's father, Ahmed Sheik, said "an innocent man has been punished" because Gen. Musharraf had demanded a conviction.
The defendants were also collectively fined $32,000 (U.S.). Chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi said the money would go to Mr. Pearl's widow Mariane and their infant son, who was born after his father was killed.
Seven more suspects, including those who allegedly killed Mr. Pearl, remain at large.
The 38-year-old journalist disappeared Jan. 23 in Karachi while researching links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives in his shoes. A videotape received by U.S. diplomats in February confirmed that Mr. Pearl was dead.
"We continue to mourn Danny Pearl," said Steven Goldstein, vice-president of Dow Jones & Co., parent company of The Wall Street Journal. "And we continue to hope that everyone responsible for his kidnapping and murder will be brought to justice. Today's verdict is one step in that direction."
In London, the British government welcomed the verdicts but opposed the death sentence for Mr. Saeed.
Reporters were barred from the courtroom when the sentence was handed down. Defence attorney Ria Bashir said all of the accused were present but "there was no reaction at all."
Ms. Bashir said the trial was fair but claimed the Pakistani government pressured the judge to appease the United States, which has sought Mr. Saeed's extradition to face charges in Mr. Pearl's abduction and the 1994 abduction in India of another American who was freed unharmed.
"There was no evidence to substantiate the charges," the defence lawyer said. "The strategy of the Pakistani government is to please America even if Americans are crushing the Muslims."
Soon after Mr. Pearl disappeared, Pakistani and U.S. news organizations received e-mails from the previously unknown National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, demanding better treatment for Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
FBI agents traced the e-mails to Mr. Naseem, who led authorities to Mr. Saeed and the other defendants, police said. Mr. Naseem's lawyer claimed his client's statement was coerced. Mr. Saeed admitted his role in the abduction during his first court appearance Feb. 14 but later recanted. The statement was not admissible because it was not made under oath.
All four were arrested in February before the videotape of Mr. Pearl's death was received. A body believed to be Mr. Pearl's was found in May in a Karachi neighbourhood. DNA tests are pending.
During the trial, the prosecution presented 23 witnesses, including taxi driver Nasir Abbas, who testified he saw Mr. Pearl get into a car with Mr. Saeed in front of a Karachi restaurant on the night the reporter vanished. The defence claimed the witness was coached by the government.
The defence produced only two character witnesses, Mr. Saeed's father and uncle.
Islamic extremists are rarely executed in Pakistan. The last prominent one was Haq Nawaz, who was hanged Feb. 28, 2001, for killing an Iranian diplomat a decade earlier. His death triggered bitter clashes between police and his supporters.
With tempers running high in conservative Islamic circles, authorities stepped up security throughout the country, especially in Karachi and around foreign embassies in the capital Islamabad. Police helicopters prowled the skies above Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a centre of Islamic extremism.
"We are worried about a terrorist attack," said Hyderabad police chief Moazzam Ansari. "It could be toxic, water contaminating, it could be a car bomb, it could be an attack on a jail to try to free the accused ... it could be to send a message to the government that if you come down hard on our people, then we will strike back."
Mr. Pearl's abduction was the first of five attacks against Westerners in Pakistan this year. It was followed by a grenade attack against a Protestant church in Islamabad on March 17 in which five people, including two Americans and the attacker, were killed.
On May 8, a car bomb at the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi killed 11 French engineers and three others, including the bomber. At least 12 Pakistanis were killed in a car bombing June 14 in front of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi.
A dozen people, including nine Europeans, were injured Saturday in an apparent grenade attack at an archaeological site north of Islamabad.
Mr. Saeed was believed to have links with some of the country's most violent Islamic extremist groups. He joined militant Islamic movements after travelling to the Balkans about 10 years ago. After training in Afghanistan, he went to India, where he was arrested in 1994 for abducting Westerners.
He was freed in December, 1999, along with two other Islamic militants in exchange for the passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines jet that was hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan. |
