ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday heard an appeal of the Sindh government in Daniel Pearl murder case, ARY News reported on Thursday.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam, hearing appeals filed by the Sindh government and parents of Daniel Pearl challenging the April 02 Sindh High Court verdict that overturned the sentences of four convicts in the case.
Farooq H. Naik representing the Sindh government continued his arguments on third day of the hearing. Naik spelled out the statements of taxi driver Nasir Abbas, Hayat Ali and Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) chief Jameel Yousuf before the court.
Sindh’s counsel argued that in the light of the incidents Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh has been the main accused. “This is not a case in which dead body or the weapon of the crime expected to be recovered. It is a blind murder, we have to keep the sequence of incidents to reach to a result,” the counsel said.
“Taxi driver’s testimony is the final constitutional evidence of this case,” Naik argued. “The taxi driver had last time saw Daniel Pearl with Ahmed Omer Shaikh,” Sindh government’s lawyer said in his arguments.
The court adjourned further hearing of the case till Tuesday when Naik will resume his arguments.
In an earlier hearing Farooq Naik said that four accused including Ahmed Omer Saeed were arrested, while seven others were at large.
The accused had hatched kidnapping plot of Daniel Pearl, a US national reporting for the Wall Street Journal, in a Rawalpindi hotel, Naik said. “They sent an email to the victim’s wife after kidnapping and demanded ransom money,” the counsel further said.
The accused slain Daniel Pearl after their demand was not met, Sindh’s counsel said. They also released the video of the slaughter causing fear and harassment in public.
Four convicts in the murder case, British national Ahmed Omer Saeed, co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil had moved the SHC in 2002 challenging their convictions handed down by the Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Court after finding them guilty of abducting and killing American Journalist Pearl.
The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was researching a story on religious extremists, in January 2002 in Karachi when he was abducted and slain.
