Pakistani court orders release of 4 men acquitted of Daniel Pearl murder
(JTA) — A court in Pakistan on Thursday ordered the immediate release of four men who had been jailed there since 2002 for the murder of the Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl.
The Sindh High Court in Karachi ordered the release of the men, who had been acquitted of the murder, calling their detainment “illegal,” the Dawn newspaper reported.
They had been involved in Pearl’s kidnapping, the court found, but not in his murder. The court did not identify the killers in the acquittal.
Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil were acquitted of murder in April but kept in jail on executive orders as prosecutors appealed their acquittal.
On Thursday, the two-judge panel of the court ordered their release from “any sort of detention” and declared all orders of the government related to their detention “null and void.”
The men are to be put on a no-fly list and must appear before the court whenever summoned as the court considers the appeals against their acquittal, the court said.
Pearl was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants. He was 38.
The post Pakistani court orders release of 4 men acquitted of Daniel Pearl murder appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
