The Supreme Court has issued its detailed judgement on the January 2002 brutal murder case of Daniel Pearl, South Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. It may be recalled that in its short order earlier this year, the court had acquitted by a majority two-to-one verdict the principal accused, Umar Sheikh, and three other suspects. The bench was seized of the appeals filed by the distraught parents of the slain journalist and the Sindh government, challenging the April 2020 Sindh High Court’s decision to overturn an anti-terrorism court’s (ATC) conviction of Umar on charges of kidnapping and murder, commuting his death sentence to seven-year rigorous imprisonment along with a Rs 2 million fine. By then he had already served nearly 20 years in solitary confinement.

Recording the reasons for acquittal, author of the judgement Justice Tariq Masood pointed out serious weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, noting that the evidence furnished during the trial was full of factual and legal defects. Regarding each and every piece of evidence, he remarked, doubts were emerging from the mouths of the witnesses. That brought into play a settled legal principle under which the benefit of the doubt goes to an accused. Even if a single circumstance created reasonable doubt in a prudent mind regarding guilt of an accused, observed the honourable justice, an accused is entitled to such benefit, not as a matter of grace and concession but of right, and that such benefits must be extended to the accused persons by courts without reservations. Few can quarrel with this long-honoured principle of justice. However, in his dissenting note, Justice Yahya Afridi approached the case from a different angle, that of a conspiracy, for which, he observed, direct evidence was seldom available. A conspiracy could be established by circumstantial evidence, he wrote, strict proof is not necessary. What is required by Article 23 of the Qanoon-i-Shahadat is that there should be “reasonable grounds” to believe that an accused and the person whose acts, statements or writings are sought to be given in evidence have conspired to commit an offence or an actionable wrong. In his opinion, in the present case, the motive of the accused to carry out the crime was not related to any private dispute with the victims, it clearly was the use of a threat designed to intimidate not only the Government of Pakistan, but also foreign governments and organisations to create a sense of fear and insecurity. Many familiar with the prevailing atmosphere at the time would be nodding in agreement.

The verdict is expected to be discussed and debated widely on its own merits as also its implications for relations with the US, which has been demanding restoration of death sentence initially awarded by an ATC. The US must respect the verdict of this country’s apex court. It should also serve as an instructive lesson for prosecutors who present shoddy evidence before courts and expect the same to be accepted, too.

Newspaper: Business Recorder (Editorial)

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed government authorities to move Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was on death row for 18 years before his acquittal in the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, to the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, issued the order while hearing a petition filed by Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani heritage, against his continued detention.

During the hearing, Punjab Additional Advocate-General Faisal Chaudhry informed the court that Sheikh had submitted an application seeking his transfer from Karachi to Lahore, where his family resided. Earlier this week, a Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) spokesperson had said that Sheikh had been shifted from Karachi to Lahore due to “security concerns”.

Justice Bandial suggested that Sheikh could be moved to a GOR (Government Officers Residences) colony, which was a high-security area, directing the Punjab government to facilitate Sheikh in accordance with court orders.

“We are not satisfied with the continuous detention of this person,” the judge remarked, according to AFP.

“The detainee Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh shall be accommodated in a government building in which officers of jail reside.”

Chaudhry, the Punjab government counsel, informed the court that it had been decided to keep Sheikh in a colony of prison staff within the premises of Kot Lakhpat jail, and sought time for the transfer. He said Rangers and police personnel would have to be deployed if he was detained outside the jail.

At this, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah inquired why the government was seeking time if Sheikh was to be kept within the limits of the jail.

Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan assured the court that Sheikh would be transferred to the Lahore prison within a week.

The lawyer for Sheikh objected to the proposal, saying being held in the prison staff colony was akin to being detained in the jail and would hinder movement. However, the objection was overruled.

At the last hearing of the case on Feb 2, 2021, the Supreme Court had ordered authorities to move Sheikh from his death cell at the Karachi Central Prison to a government rest house with the provision of facilities for a normal life, albeit without access to the outside world through telephone, internet, etc.

The directives were issued after Attorney General Khan and Sindh Advocate General Salman Talibuddin had expressed concern that if Sheikh was released, he would either be taken away or may disappear.

During today’s hearing, the counsel for the men earlier convicted in the case informed the court that Sheikh Muhammad Adil, another former accused, was ill and needed treatment.

The court directed authorities to provide all necessary medical facilities to Adil. It also ordered the federal and provincial governments to submit reports of implementation of its orders in the court chambers.

The hearing of the case was adjourned for two weeks, while the court directed the Punjab chief secretary to appear at the next hearing.

On January 28, the Supreme Court — by a majority of two to one — had upheld the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) acquittal of Sheikh and ordered his release if he was not wanted in any other case.

The court had also directed that all the other accused — Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Syed Salman Saqib and Adil be released forthwith unless they were wanted in any other case.

The Sindh government and parents of the slain journalist had appealed the high court’s decision, but the apex court upheld the acquittal order.

Pearl’s murder and legal action

Wall Street Journal journalist Pearl, 38, was doing research on religious extremism in Karachi when he was abducted in January 2002. A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate a month later. Subsequently, Sheikh was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to death by a trial court.

In its April 2, 2020, order, the SHC had overturned Sheikh’s conviction for Pearl’s murder but maintained his conviction on a lesser charge of abetting the kidnapping, for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

As Sheikh had been incarcerated since 2002, that sentence was counted as time already served by the high court. The SHC had also acquitted three other men who had earlier been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Karachi anti-terrorism court.

After their acquittal order, the provincial government placed them in 90-day detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, saying their release posed a threat to security.

On July 1, a fresh notification under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, extended their detention by three months, which was later extended by another 90 days.

But in December, the high court accepted a petition by the men against their continued detention and ordered their immediate release, declaring all notifications of the Sindh government related to their detention “null and void”.

Following the SHC’s order to release the four men, the Sindh government had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking to keep them incarcerated, citing threats to national security if they were to walk free.

Newspaper: Dawn, The News, Express Tribune, The Nation, Business Recorder

HYDERABAD: The Central Jail Hyderabad’s Superintendent Aijaz Hyder informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) here Tuesday that Syed Qari Hashim Shah, who was acquitted in US journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder case, has been released from the prison.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Syed Khalid Imran Shah, brother, who maintained that despite the acquittal orders by Anti-Terrorism Court on October 23, 2014, his brother has not been released from the prison.

His counsel, advocate Sher Muhammad Laghari apprised the SHC that Hashim was detained for 90 days under Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance but even that period of detention had completed on January 19, 2015. In his reply, the Jail Superintendent informed the court that Hashim was released from the jail on January 19. However, the petitioner’s counsel challenged the claim. The SHC deferred the hearing to March 26.

Daily Times

The post Man acquitted in Daniel Pearl case freed appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

Karachi: One of the four men convicted for murdering the American journalist, Daniel Pearl, has been asked by Sindh High Court (SHC) to engage a lawyer to pursue his appeal against life imprisonment. Earlier, dissatisfied with the trial court verdict, all the four convicts in the case has appealed against their conviction and subsequent award of sentences.

The Express Tribune

HYDERABAD: Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, a death row prisoner convicted in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, had attempted suicide in his Hyderabad jail cell earlier this week, just a day before his appeal was to be heard in the Sindh High Court.

Shaikh along with his three other accomplices, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Adil, was convicted and handed the death penalty in 2002. The co-accused were handed 25-year jail terms.

“Shaikh warned the wardens that he will commit suicide if he is not provided a mobile phone within 15 minutes,” the Jail Superintendent Pir Shabbir Jan Sarhindi told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

Sarhindi added that Shaikh tied his bed sheet as a rope around the iron grills of the exhaust in his cell and tried to hang himself. “The wardens used a scissor to cut the bed sheet when he knotted it in the grills and around his neck.”

“His condition is stable now and a case has been filed against him in the local police station,” jail official Akram Naeem said. An FIR has been lodged at the Baldia police station on the complaint of assistant jail superintendent Syed Nadeem Shah. Shaikh has been booked under section 325 of the CrPC which contains a jail term of up to one year if proven guilty of committing suicide.

Express Tribune