The Pakistani government on Wednesday ordered a British-born Pakistani man, who has been on death row over the 2002 killing of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl, to remain in jail for another three months despite his acquittal by a lower court earlier this year, The Associated Press reported.
The development was announced by prosecutors during a brief hearing of the high-profile case at Pakistan’s Supreme Court, which was to decide whether the key suspect in Pearl’s slaying, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, should stay in jail following his acquittal.
The court convened on an appeal by Pearl’s family, seeking to keep Sheikh on death row over the beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter.
Sheikh was ordered to remain in detention in April after the Sindh High Court overturned the murder conviction and death sentence, generating outrage from Pearl’s family, the US government and media rights groups.
According to Faisal Siddiqi, the lawyer representing Pearl’s family, government prosecutor Fiaz Shah told the judges on Wednesday he needed more time for paperwork in connection with the case. The judges then adjourned the hearing till October 21.
Siddiqi, who had expected the court to rule against Sheikh’s acquittal on Wednesday, said he still hopes such a decision would come before the expiration of the suspect’s new, 90-day detention.
Sheikh’s defense lawyer, Mahmood Shaikh, told AP he had expected his client to walk free on Wednesday. “My client cannot he kept in jail for an indefinite period,” Shaikh said.
The lawyer said he has already challenged Wednesday’s three-month extension in Sheikh’s detention in Sindh province and that his motion would be taken up by a local court there on October 19.
Under Pakistan’s flawed legal system, the appeals process against Sheikh’s acquittal could take years. The government has opposed Sheikh’s release, despite his acquittal, saying it would endanger the public.
Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan in early 2002 while working on a story about jihadists. A videotape received by US diplomats in February of that year confirmed that the 38-year-old had been beheaded.
The Pearl Project, an investigative journalism team at Georgetown University, carried out a three-year investigation into Pearl’s kidnapping and death. They concluded the reporter was beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later described as the architect of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Mohammad is a prisoner at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Sheikh had been convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi where he was kidnapped.
Pearl’s family says it received assurances from the US State Department that it was closely following Sheikh’s acquittal and subsequent appeals.