Family’s Counsel presents contentions in Daniel Pearl murder case appeal

ISLAMABAD: A bag was recovered from Ahmed Omer Shaikh when he was arrested, the counsel of Daniel Pearl’s family told the Supreme Court on Thursday in hearing of appeals against acquittal of four convicts of the murder case.

“In the bag emails, camera, scanner and some photographs were found,” Faisal Siddiqui said in his arguments before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam.

“The witnesses said that two emails were sent but you are talking about several emails,” Justice Sardar Tariq, a member of the bench remarked. “The documents you are talking about, were not produced before the trial court as well as the high court,” the court observed. “How these papers added in the Supreme Court’s file,” Justice Tariq Masood asked.

“The court’s permission is necessary before producing new documents in the case,” Justice Mushir Alam said. “We won’t see these documents now and will seek verification of the documents submitted to the supreme court,” Justice Mushir Alam further said.

The court adjourned further hearing of the case till 05 January in the next year.

In his arguments , yesterday counsel Faisal Siddiqui pleaded that the court should review the evidence of kidnapping and murder separately.

“The post mortem report of the slain journalist identified his age, height and dress”, the counsel said. The post mortem report came during the trial, perhaps it was not made the part of the verdict, because the trial was in its final phase, the counsel stated.

Four convicts of the murder case, British national Ahmed Omer Saeed, 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 the convicts on April 02 this year.

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.