SHC reduces death sentence of key suspect in Daniel Pearl case

• The death sentence of Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh has been reduced to seven years.
• The three other suspects have been acquitted by the high court.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) reduced on Thursday the death sentence handed to main suspect in the abduction and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

A two-member bench SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha had reserved its judgement last month. The convicts’ appeals had been pending for the past 18 years.

During the hearing today, the SHC reduced the death sentence of key suspect Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, also known as Shaikh Omar to seven years in prison. The court also acquitted three suspects Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil.

Pearl, a US national and the South Asian bureau chief of American publication The Wall Street Journal was kidnapped on January 2002 in Karachi. On July 15, 2002, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had sentenced Sheikh to death.

The ATC also handed life term to the other three suspects  for the abduction and killing of the journalist.