Briton charged with murder of US reporter

The British former public schoolboy accused of masterminding the abduction and murder of American reporter Daniel Pearl was today charged in Pakistan.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from Wanstead, east London, appeared before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi as 100 armed police ringed the building.

Saeed, 28, and three alleged accomplices are accused of murder, kidnapping and terrorism over the death of the Wall Street Journal reporter.

Seven others, who remain at large, were also accused in the prosecutor’s indictment on the same charges.

The court was scheduled to convene again March 29, at which time a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to accept the charges.

Once that step is taken, the trial would begin immediately.

‘‘We have not found the body, but it will not affect the case,’’ Chief Prosecutor Raja Quereshi said yesterday. ‘‘There is other evidence which is sufficient for his conviction.’’

Pearl was abducted in the southern port city on January 23 while researching links between Islamic extremists and Londoner Richard Reid, who was arrested after trying to bring down a transatlantic flight with explosives in his trainers.

Last month, a gruesome video showing Pearl’s decapitation was received by US officials in the southern port city.

Saeed, a London School of Economics dropout, has already confessed to masterminding the kidnapping, but he was not under oath and his admission is not considered admissible as evidence.

He has since retracted the confession.

The case against him 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.

Other evidence includes e-mails showing photographs of Pearl in chains that were traced to three of the defendants.

‘‘We have circumstantial evidence and also the video-tape of Daniel Pearl’s murder,’’ Quereshi said after presenting the charges.

The US has also indicted Saeed. Officials from Pakistan and America have discussed sending him to the US to stand trial, and possibly face execution.