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.
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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.