FBI agents questioned in Pearl murder trial

A trial in Pakistan of a British-born Muslim accused of abducting and killing a US reporter resumed today with the cross-examination of FBI agents by defence lawyers.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from Wanstead, east London, and three alleged accomplices face execution if convicted of kidnapping, murder and terrorism in connection with the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

The FBI agents arrived at the heavily fortified Hyderabad Jail, surrounded by paramilitaries and armed police. They drove past reporters waiting outside the jail.

The trial is closed to reporters, who have to rely on defence and prosecution lawyers for details of the proceedings.

The FBI was called in to assist Pakistan soon after Pearl was kidnapped from the port city of Karachi on January 23.

FBI experts were used to trace the e-mails that were sent by Pearl’s captors to foreign and local news publications.

Photographs of a captive Pearl accompanied the e-mails signed by a previously unknown group demanding better treatment for the suspected Taliban and al-Qaida men being held at a US naval base detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The trial, which began on April 22 in Karachi, was relocated to Hyderabad after Chief Prosecutor Raja Quereshi said he feared for his life.

He said his fears were vindicated after last week’s suicide bombing that killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers, in Karachi.

The four defendants deny the charges. Saeed, chief defendant, retracted an earlier confession of involvement in the kidnapping of Pearl.

The prosecution has called several witnesses to try to make their case that the defendants lured Pearl to the restaurant in Karachi from where he was kidnapped, took photographs of him in captivity and then circulated the photographs and threats via e-mail to foreign and local news organisations.

A gruesome three-minute video tape of Pearl’s death was shown to the court earlier this week.

The defence dismissed the video tape as fake.

Pearl’s body has not been recovered.