Daniel pearl, Journalist

Karachi, April 2 The Sindh High Court (SHC) is set to announce its verdict on Thursday on the appeals filed by four convicts in the case of the slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002, a media report said.A two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha had reserved the judgement last month on the convicts' appeals, pending for the past 18 years, and an appeal of the state seeking enhancement of the sentence after hearing arguments and examining the record and proceedings of the case, Dawn news said in the report.An anti-terrorism court (ATC) had sentenced to death prime accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, commonly known as Shaikh Omar, and life term to co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil for the abduction of the slain journalist.Shaikh Omar and other convicts had moved the SHC in 2002 challenging their convictions handed down by the Hyderabad ATC after finding them guilty of abducting and killing Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal who was researching a story on religious extremists, in January 2002 in Karachi.Hashim, Asim alias Qasim, Hassan, Ahmed Bhai, Imtiaz Siddiqui and Amjad Farooqui had been declared proclaimed offenders by the trial court, the Dawn news report further said.The lawyers for the appellants, Rai Bashir and Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, submitted that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove its case against their clients beyond any reasonable doubt and prosecution witnesses were mostly policemen and their testimonies could not be relied upon.They further contended that the recovery of a laptop computer with e-mails and messages foisted on appellants Naseem and Adil Sheikh, and their confessions before a judicial magistrate were defective and not voluntary.Deputy Prosecutor General Saleem Akhtar supported the trial court's verdict and submitted that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellants beyond a shadow of doubt and requested the court to dismiss the appeals.( With inputs from IANS )

Home

City

Latest News

Cricket

LT Premium

National

International

Maharashtra

Opinions

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Nagpur

Entertainment

Photos

Business

Technology

Sports

Lifestyle

Social Viral

Lokmat Games

Health

Ahmedabad Plane Crash

Pune Bridge Collapse

Maharashtra News

Mumbai Local

Weather Update

Mumbai Rains

Daniel PearlFOLLOW

Daniel pearl, Latest News

Politics :Sindh to hire private counsel to plead Daniel Pearl case appeal

The Sindh government has decided to hire a private counsel to plead appeal against the provincial high court's order to acquit and release the accused in the case of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded in Pakistan 18 ...

Politics :Pak Supreme Court appeal in Daniel Pearl case next week

Pakistan's Interior Ministry said that the Sindh government would file an appeal against the provincial high court ruling in the case of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded in 2002, in the Supreme Court next week. ...

International :Verdict on appeals in Daniel Pearl murder case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) is set to announce its verdict on Thursday on the appeals filed by four convicts in the case of the slain American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002, a media report said. ...