Karachi | Friday
THE chief accused in the kidnap and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl arrived at a heavily-guarded court in Karachi on Friday for a hearing in which police are expected to lay formal murder charges against him.
British-born Pakistani militant Sheikh Omar was brought to an anti-terrorism court under intensive police security after prosecutors were earlier forced to relocate the hearing and find another judge when justice Shabbir Ahmed, who was supposed to preside over the hearing, failed to appear.
Police and prosecutors plan to submit charge sheets naming Omar as the chief accused in Pearl’s abduction and killing and another 10 people, including seven alleged kidnappers who are still at large, as co-accused.
Security at the court was tighter than during Omar’s three previous court appearances for remand hearings.
Almost 300 police, from 14 platoons, were on guard and up to 25 police vans were stationed outside. Omar was brought to the court in an armoured police car and police officers formed a tight cordon around him as he was led inside.
All media and the public were barred from the hearing.
Among the 10 co-accused are three men who allegedly sent e-mails containing threats to kill the Wall Street Journal correspondent and photos of him in captivity.
One of the accused e-mailers, former police intelligence officer Sheikh Adil, was also due to appear in court Friday for the charge hearing.
Pearl was the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia correspondent and was researching a story on Pakistani militants’ links to British ”shoe-bomber” Richard Reid when he went to interview a militant leader in Karachi on January 23. He never returned.
A video recording his decapitation was sent to US consular officials in Karachi on February 21.
Omar was already in police custody when the video surfaced. One week previously he had told a Karachi court that he masterminded Pearl’s abduction and declared that the reporter was dead.
Omar (29) whose full name is Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore on February 12 on suspicion of arranging the kidnapping.
Despite holding him in custody for over a month, police have so far been unable to bring formal charges against Omar, citing the failure to locate Pearl’s body, the murder weapon, and seven suspects.
Late Thursday, however, chief investigator Manzoor Mughal was optimistic that they had a strong case because the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) had provided them with expert opinions on the video and the e-mails.
”We have not been able to recover either the body, the weapon used in the murder or the remaining accused persons as yet. But our case is still strong,” he said.
Several FBI agents, who have been assisting Pakistani investigators since Pearl disappeared, are listed as prosecution witnesses on the charge sheet, Mughal said.
A US grand jury has indicted Omar for the kidnapping and murder of Pearl and the 1994 abduction of an American tourist in India, and demanded Pakistan turn him over to US authorities.
Islamabad, however, insists the investigation must be completed before any decision is made on whether to extradite him. – Sapa-AFP