AGL 38.00 Increased By ▲ 0.43 (1.14%)
AIRLINK 132.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-0.37%)
BOP 5.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.89%)
CNERGY 3.80 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.8%)
DCL 8.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.9%)
DFML 40.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.12%)
DGKC 88.28 Decreased By ▼ -1.88 (-2.09%)
FCCL 35.20 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (0.34%)
FFBL 66.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.50 (-0.75%)
FFL 10.37 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (2.17%)
HUBC 109.05 Increased By ▲ 2.65 (2.49%)
HUMNL 14.20 Increased By ▲ 0.80 (5.97%)
KEL 4.84 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.41%)
KOSM 6.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.58%)
MLCF 41.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-0.57%)
NBP 59.60 Increased By ▲ 1.02 (1.74%)
OGDC 180.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.14%)
PAEL 25.57 Decreased By ▼ -0.13 (-0.51%)
PIBTL 5.89 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (1.03%)
PPL 145.91 Decreased By ▼ -2.49 (-1.68%)
PRL 23.28 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.26%)
PTC 15.45 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (1.38%)
SEARL 68.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.74 (-1.08%)
TELE 7.26 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.28%)
TOMCL 35.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.56%)
TPLP 7.45 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.68%)
TREET 14.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.63%)
TRG 50.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.21 (-0.41%)
UNITY 26.40 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
WTL 1.22 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.83%)
BR100 9,764 Decreased By -4.1 (-0.04%)
BR30 29,497 Increased By 97.1 (0.33%)
KSE100 91,918 Decreased By -19.7 (-0.02%)
KSE30 28,689 Decreased By -55.1 (-0.19%)

The lawyer of an Islamist militant sentenced to be hanged for his role in the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl said on Monday that he would use a top al Qaeda militant's confession to support an appeal.
British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, or Sheikh Omar, was sentenced to death in 2002 for the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, who was abducted while researching a story on Islamic militants.
But Khalid Sheikh Mohammed--the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States-said in a confession released by US authorities last week that he had killed Pearl.
Omar's lawyer, Basheer Ahmed, said his client's conviction was "a gross miscarriage of justice". "In the next court hearing, I am going to submit the recent statement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in which he said he himself had beheaded the US journalist," Ahmed told Reuters.
"From Day One, my contention was that the evidence presented in court was not strong enough to lead to the conviction of my client." Mohammed admitted involvement in more than 30 attacks or plots during a hearing at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl," Mohammed said, according to a transcript of his statement.
Last year, Ahmed had said he would base an appeal on a memoir by President Pervez Musharraf, who wrote that while Omar masterminded Pearl's kidnapping, it was Mohammed who had beheaded him. Ahmed said that defence lawyers were trying to get Mohammed's original statement from US authorities before filing an appeal. He said he would also seek to summon those who interrogated Mohammed. Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 and transferred to US custody.
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002. He was later found beheaded. Omar was sentenced to death while three co-accused were jailed for life.
The convicts appealed to Sindh High Court in July 2002. The government also appealed to the same court, asking for enhancement of the punishment for the co-accused.

Copyright Reuters, 2007

Comments

Comments are closed.