The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday ordered the release of a British citizen convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The move comes nearly two decades after the journalist’s body was found in a shallow grave in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. He was killed five months after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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A video of Pearl’s beheading was sent to the US headquarters in Karachi and posted on a website.
The 2-1 decision followed an appeal by Pearl’s family and the Pakistani government against a district court decision last April that overturned the murder convictions of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others.
Thursday’s decision was immediately criticized by Pearl’s family, who called it “a complete miscarriage of justice.” They asked the United States to act.
A spokesman for United States Attorney Monty Wilkinson reiterated an earlier Justice Department statement that it was “prepared to arrest Sheikh for trial here” on charges of murdering an American.
