Daniel Pearl murder case: SC rejects Sindh govt's request to extend detention of accused

(Karachi) The Supreme Court has rejected Sindh government’s request to further extend the detention period of four accused involved in US journalist Daniel Pearl's murder case, media reported on Wednesday.

During the hearing, Sindh prosecutor general asked the court to grant him time to prepare his case. He requested that detention of the four accused be extended.

However, the SC bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam dismissed the request, stating that the Sindh government has already had the detention extended by three months and the court could not extend it further.

Earlier, exercising power vested under West Pakistan of Maintenance Public Order Ordinance 1960, the provincial government extended detention of the accused identified as Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil, thrice.

The top court adjourned hearing of the case till October 21.

Earlier, the Supreme Court accepted the appeals of Sindh government for hearing against the acquittal of convicts in Daniel Pearl murder case.

The SC bench ordered that the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) decision of overturning the conviction in Daniel Pearl murder case could not be cancelled over hypothetical arguments.

American journalist Daniel Pearl disappeared on January 23, 2002 in Karachi. A videotape received by U.S. diplomats in February 2002 confirmed that the 38-year-old journalist was dead.

Authorities later arrested Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a former student at the London School of Economics, and three others who were convicted in July 2002. But in April, a court overturned the murder conviction of Saeed, a British Pakistani national, though it found him guilty of kidnapping Pearl and sentenced him to seven years.

Saeed could go free unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise. He had already spent 18 years in prison on death row and the seven-year sentence for kidnapping was expected to be counted as time served.