Four charged with murder of Journalist
A Pakistani prosecutor today presented charges against four Islamic militants in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three accomplices are accused of murder, kidnapping and terrorism in Pearl's death, chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi said. A trial is set to begin on March 29, after a judge reviews the evidence.
even others, who remain at large, were also accused in the prosecutor's indictment. Saeed, from Wanstead, East London, is the key suspect in the January 23 kidnapping in Karachi.
He confessed during a court session last month that he abducted Pearl, but has since withdrawn the statement, which was not made under oath and is considered inadmissible.
he case against Saeed relies heavily on the testimony of taxi driver Nasir Abbas, who told police he drove Pearl to a restaurant and saw him shake hands with Saeed before getting into a car with him.
The three other suspects - Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Mohammed Adeel and Salman Saqib - were arrested on January 30. Prosecutors have linked them to e-mails announcing Pearl's death. Adeel and Saeed appeared in court; Naseem and Saqib were not present.
`We have circumstantial evidence and also the videotape of Daniel Pearl's murder,'' the prosecutor said. ``We will present that too, as evidence.''
In February, a videotape received by the US Consulate in Karachi confirmed Pearl had been slain. A US federal grand jury indicted Saeed in Pearl's death on March 14. Since the kidnapping resulted in the reporter's death, Saeed could face the death penalty if brought to the US and convicted.
he indictment alleges that Saeed trained at Afghan military camps and also fought with Taliban and al Qaida fighters last September and October as the war in Afghanistan was beginning.
Pearl, the newspaper's South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped when examining links between Pakistani extremists and so-called British shoe bomber Richard Reid, who was arrested in December on a Paris-Miami flight he allegedly boarded with explosives in his sneakers.
