Daniel Pearl Murder Suspect Freed in Pakistan

Daniel Pearl

By JTA October 27, 2014

A suspect in the execution-style murder of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was released by a Pakistani court due to lack of evidence.

Daniel Pearl

Qari Hashim was arrested in 2005, three years after Pearl’s murder. He was accused of introducing Pearl to British-born terrorist Omar Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 by a Pakistani anti-terror court for being the mastermind behind Pearl’s kidnapping and execution. Three others accused of involvement in Pearl’s abduction were sentenced to life in prison.

Hashim was released by a Pakistani anti-terror court in the southern city of Hyderabad on Friday

Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, was researching a story about Islamist militants when he was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002. He was murdered a month later. His body was found in May 2002.

His final words as he was about to be beheaded — an act that was captured on camera and widely distributed — were “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.”

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