Daniel Pearl case: SC fixes hearing of appeals challenging acquittal of murder accused

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has fixed the hearing of appeals against the acquittal of the accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh in Daniel Pearl murder case, ARY News reported on Friday.

The top court’s bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial will hear the appeal against the acquittal of Omer Shaikh in Daniel Pearl murder case on March 10.

The murder accused had been shifted to a state guest house from jail over the court orders. The federal and Sindh governments had earlier pleaded not to release Omer Shaikh.

Earlier on February 2, the Supreme Court had rejected a review petition seeking suspension of the Sindh High Court’s acquittal verdict in Daniel Pearl murder case.

Read: SHC declares detention of Daniel Pearl murder accused unlawful

A bench of the apex court headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial had ordered while dismissing the petition to immediately remove the main accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh and others from the death cell of the jail.

Four convicts of the murder case, British national Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh, co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil had moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) in 2002 challenging their convictions handed down by the Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Court after finding them guilty of abducting and killing American Journalist Daniel Pearl.

The high court overturned the verdict of the ATC and acquitted convicts on April 02, 2020. Subsequently, the Sindh government filed an appeal in the SC challenging their acquittal.

The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was researching for a story on religious extremists in January 2002 in Karachi, when he was abducted and slain.