World
Pakistan court moves killer of American journalist Daniel Pearl to safe house
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a government “safe house.”
Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under arrest and will not be allowed to leave the safe house but his wife and children will be able to visit him.
The Pakistan government has been trying to keep Sheikh in prison after the Supreme Court last Thursday upheld his acquittal in the death of Pearl, triggering outrage by Pearl’s family and the US administration.
Pakistan’s government as well as the Pearl family have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl’s murder.
The US government has said that it would seek Sheikh’s extradition if his acquittal is upheld. Sheikh has been indicted in the United States on Pearl’s murder as well as in a 1994 kidnapping of an American citizen in Indian-ruled Kashmir. The American was eventually freed.