Won’t enable Daniel Pearl’s killer to evade justice: US tells Pakistan
3 min read
Image Source : FILE US says it will not enable Daniel Pearl’s killer to evade justice; able to attempt Omar Sheikh
The US has mentioned it is able to take custody of British-born al-Qaeda chief Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, accused of kidnapping and murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl, asserting that Washington is not going to enable him to evade justice.
Acting US Attorney General Jeffrey A Rosen’s remarks comes days after a Pakistani court-ordered launch of Sheikh and his three aides, convicted and later acquitted within the kidnapping and homicide case of Pearl.
“We cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder,” Rosen mentioned on Tuesday.
Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and beheaded whereas he was in Pakistan investigating a narrative in 2002 on the hyperlinks between the nation’s highly effective spy company ISI and al-Qaeda.
“We understand that Pakistani authorities are taking steps to ensure that Omar Sheikh remains in custody while the Supreme Court appeal seeking to reinstate his conviction continues,” Rosen mentioned in an announcement launched by the US State Department.
“The separate judicial rulings reversing his conviction and ordering his release are an affront to terrorism victims everywhere,” he mentioned.
“We stay grateful for the Pakistani authorities’s actions to attraction such rulings to make sure that he and his co-defendants are held accountable. If, nevertheless, these efforts don’t succeed, the United States stands able to take custody of Omar Sheikh to face trial right here,” he mentioned.
In a shock transfer, a two-judge bench of the Sindh High Court final week directed safety businesses to not hold Sheikh and different accused underneath “any sort of detention” and declared all notifications of the Sindh authorities associated to their detention “null and void”. The courtroom noticed that the 4 males’s detention was “illegal”.
Days later the Sindh province authorities mentioned it has determined to not launch Sheikh and his three aides in view of a Supreme Court’s September 28 order.
A 3-judge apex courtroom bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam, which is listening to the attraction by the Sindh authorities and the household of the slain journalist in opposition to the acquittal of Sheikh by the Sindh High Court in April, on September 28 famous that until the following date of listening to, the accused shall not be launched.
A senior Pakistani authorities official mentioned the apex courtroom order has not been particularly recalled.
“The SHC in its December 24 order additionally clarified that accused shouldn’t be launched if there’s a Supreme Court restraining order concerning their detention,” the official added.
In April, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench commuted the demise sentence of 46-year-old Sheikh to seven years imprisonment. The courtroom additionally acquitted his three aides who have been serving life phrases within the case – virtually twenty years after they have been discovered responsible and jailed.
However, the Sindh authorities refused to launch them and saved them in detention underneath the Maintenance of Public Order. Their steady detention was challenged within the Sindh High Court, which ordered their launch on Thursday.
On Friday, the United States had expressed “deep concern” over the order to launch Sheikh and his aides and mentioned it can proceed to observe any developments within the case.
“We are deeply concerned by the reports of the December 24 ruling of Sindh High Court to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. We have been assured that the accused have not been released at this time,” the US State Department mentioned in a tweet. It mentioned that the US will proceed to observe any developments within the case and can proceed to help the Pearl household “through this extremely difficult process” whereas honouring the legacy of Pearl as a “courageous journalist”.
The US has been mounting strain on Pakistan, demanding justice for Pearl.
Pearl’s homicide befell three years after Sheikh, together with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was launched by India in 1999 and given protected passage to Afghanistan in trade for the almost 150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814. He was serving a jail time period in India for kidnappings of Western vacationers within the nation.
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