The United States Government has expressed its “deep concern” about the order issued by a Pakistani court ordering the release of the man convicted of torturing and beheading the American journalist of the newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’ Daniel Pearl.
“We are deeply concerned by reports of a ruling by the Supreme Court of Sindh to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. We have been assured that the accused have not yet been released,” the State Department office said for Central and South Asian affairs.
“We understand that this case is underway and we will follow it closely. We continue to be alongside the Pearl family in this extremely difficult process. We continue to honor Pearl’s legacy,” he said through his official account on the social network Twitter, before to describe him as “a brave journalist”.
We are deeply concerned by the reports of the December 24 ruling of Sindh High Court to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. We have been assured that the accused have not been released at this time.
The provincial court ruled Omar Saeed Shaykh must be released, after determining in April that the death sentence imposed against him by a lower court 18 years ago was based on faulty evidence and also suspended the life sentences handed down against three accomplices.
The four defendants should have been released from prison following the ruling of the Sindh Supreme Court on April 2, but they were not released. Instead of being released from jail, they were re-arrested under a public security law that allows authorities to detain anyone who is considered a threat to public order.
Both Pearl’s family and the Sindh regional government have appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision to release the four defendants.
Pearl, who was the Southeast Asia correspondent for the American daily ‘The Wall Street Journal’, was kidnapped, tortured and beheaded in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in 2002. The reporter was one of the journalists who They were in Pakistan to report on the consequences of the fall of the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan.
© 2020 Europa Press.
