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PAKISTAN-US-JOURNALIST
Parents of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl appeal acquittals
ISLAMABAD, May 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The parents of murdered US journalist Daniel
Pearl filed an appeal with Pakistan’s Supreme Court Saturday to reverse a decision
overturning the longstanding convictions of four men in the case.
A Karachi court sparked outrage last month when it acquitted British-born
militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other men convicted in Pearl’s 2002
kidnapping and beheading.
“We have filed an appeal of this decision to the Pakistan Supreme Court,”
Pearl’s father, Judea Pearl, said in a video message.
“We are standing up for justice not only for our son but for all our dear
friends in Pakistan so they can live in a society free of violence and terror and
raise their children in peace and harmony.”
The appeal doubles up on a petition prosecutors already filed with the court.
Following the acquittals, authorities re-arrested Sheikh and the others, who
will be held for at least three months while the appeals play out.
Pearl’s killing provoked international condemnation, pressuring Pakistan’s
military government just as it was remaking its image following years of backing
the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer representing Pearl’s parents, told AFP there is
“substantial incriminating evidence, both oral and forensic, against the accused
persons for the offences they have been tried for”.
The “Sindh High Court has misapplied the burden and the standard of proof
erroneously to the facts of this case,” their appeal states. Tariq Bilal, a senior
Pakistani lawyer, said the court would take up both appeals simultaneously.
The “filing of the appeal by parents alongside the state would carry greater
weight for the court as both parties have questioned the acquittal”, Bilal said.
Pearl was South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was
abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about Islamist
militants.
A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate
nearly a month later.
Observers at the time said the killers were acting out of revenge for
Pakistan’s support of the US-led war on the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan
and the Al-Qaeda terror network they harboured.
In a statement supporting the appeal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said
releasing the four men in the case “would only add to the threats facing
journalists in Pakistan and deepen Pakistan’s reputation as a haven for
terrorists.”
BSS/AFP/MRU/2140hrs