ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed that the accused Ahmed Omer Sheikh wrote a letter to the Sindh High Court (SHC) last year admitting his role in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl for ransom.
Faisal Siddiqui, counsel for Daniel’s parents – Ruth Pearl and Judea Pearl – told that the main accused [Ahmed Omer Sheikh] knows who had murdered the bureau chief of Wall Street Journal in Pakistan.
The accused has asked for remission in sentence, awarded by the trial court, he added.
Trial court on 15-07-2002 convicted Ahmad Omer Saeed Sheikh and awarded him death sentence, while Adil Sheikh, Salman Saqib, and Fahad Nasim were given life imprisonment under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
However, a division bench of the SHC, Karachi acquitted the accused.
It also held that the subject case does not fall within the purview of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and Omer Sheikh is entitled to both remissions in accordance with law and the benefit of Section 382-B, Criminal Procedure Code, 1898.
A three-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, on Thursday heard the appeals of the Sindh government and Daniel Pearl’s parents against the SHC judgment acquitting the alleged murderers of Daniel Pearl.
The bench inquired from the counsel, from where he obtained Omer Sheikh’s letter. Faisal Siddiqui submitted it is in the High Court file, which the apex court had summoned for the case hearing.
The court reader then with the assistance of Faisal’s associate, located letter in the file and showed it to the bench members. The judges noted it was not numbered or contains diary number of note, therefore, they will decide about considering it later. The bench expressing surprise over the letter asked the reader to inquire how this is in high court file.
Faisal apprised that the letter came to his knowledge at the time of filing appeal [on behalf of Daniel’s parents].
“We have obtained the attested copy of the letter,” he told.
Justice Yahya Afridi questioned when was this letter written? The prosecutor general Sindh responded on 25th July, 2019.
Faisal contended Umer Sheikh was an international terrorist, especially involved in other kidnapping for ransom incidents, adding the accused was also arrested in India in a terrorism-related case.
He argued that admission did not necessarily lead to conviction, but it was a confession.
He then cited the Supreme Court judgment regarding the admission of the accused about his role at later stage. The counsel submitted as the accused was aware that the high court was going to decide the appeals; therefore, he wrote a letter in July 2019.
The SHC decided the appeals of the Sindh government and the accused against the trial court verdict on 02-04-2020. The Court questioned how additional documents about the murder of Daniel Pearl could be placed before it, when those were not provided to the SHC, and were not even before the trial court.
Justice Tariq Masood said: “I am surprised how these documents came to the Supreme Court record without the permission of the court.”
Faisal Siddiqui, in the last hearing, informed about the postmortem and the DNA reports, which confirmed that decapitated body was of the bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal in Pakistan.
He, however, said the SHC in its April 2020 judgment ignored those facts due to the negligence of the prosecution.
He told that in May 2002 Daniel’s body in 10 pieces was exhumed from a grave in Karachi under the supervision of the area magistrate.
The postmortem report showed that the body was 12 to 17 weeks old, which strengthened their stance that it was the body of Daniel Pearl as reportedly, he was killed in the last week of January, 2002.
Daniel Pearl was killed in Karachi in January, 2002.
His wife Mariane Pearl on 04.02.2002 had filed an FIR at Artillery Maidan Police Station, Karachi.
The case was adjourned until January 5th.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020