FBI video expert to testify in Briton's murder trial
An FBI video expert was today set to testify at the trial in Pakistan of a British Muslim accused of the abduction and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl, the chief prosecutor said.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from Wanstead, east London, and three alleged accomplices face execution if found guilty of kidnapping, murder and terrorism.
Chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi did not give any details about why he had called the agent.
The court was expected to decide today whether it will allow the prosecution to show a video of Pearl just before he was killed and again after his throat was cut.
Reporters are barred from attending the proceedings at a special anti-terrorism court inside the Hyderabad central jail, but lawyers are allowed to brief them outside.
The trial, which began on April 22, was moved from Karachi because of security concerns.
Yesterday, an expert testified that written drafts of the e-mails sent by Pearl’s kidnappers matched the handwriting of Saeed and one of his alleged accomplices.
Quereshi said the handwriting expert told the court that English-language versions of the e-mails were written by Saeed, the alleged mastermind of Pearl’s abduction on January 23, this year, and subsequent killing.
Urdu-language drafts of the e-mails were written by co-defendant Sheikh Mohammed Adeel, Quereshi quoted the expert, Gulam Akbar Jafri, as saying.
Saeed’s lawyers said they rejected the handwriting expert’s testimony as ‘‘technically flawed’’.
Pearl, 38, was investigating a story linking Pakistani Islamic militants to Briton Richard Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami allegedly with explosives in his shoes.
Also yesterday, Saeed’s father, Syed Ahmed Sheikh, protested the prison conditions under which his son is being held.
Ahmed said outside court that his son is left alone in his cell 23 hours a day, with only a half hour to exercise in the morning and another 30 minutes each evening.
‘‘He’s not made any complaints. He doesn’t complain anyway,’’ said Ahmed.
Ahmed denied allegations by Quereshi that Saeed and other defendants made threatening gestures in court last month.
The exact contents of the e-mail drafts were not discussed outside the court on yesterday, but two of the e-mails sent by Pearl’s kidnappers to US and Pakistani news organizations claimed to be from a previously unknown group called the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.
An FBI expert told the court on Saturday that he had traced the e-mails to one of the four defendants and had examined the laptop from which they were sent, lawyers said.
Also yesterday, defence lawyers cross-examined a magistrate, Erum Jahangir, who took pretrial statements from the four defendants.
Defence lawyer Rai Bashir said the judge testified the statements were made under duress, but Quereshi denied the magistrate said anything of the kind.
Saeed admitted his involvement in the pretrial hearing, but it was not under oath and he later denied any guilt.
