Pakistani court postpones murder appeal

A Pakistani court today postponed an appeal hearing by a British man and three other Islamic militants convicted of killing American reporter Daniel Pearl last January.

The request for the postponement was made by one of their lawyers, said court officials in Karachi. The judge granted the postponement without setting a new hearing date.

Former public schoolboy Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed, of south London, and three other men, were convicted by an anti-terrorism court in July of abducting and killing Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, who was researching a story on Islamic militancy.

Saeed, who studied at the London School of Economics and was a pupil at the private Forest School in Snaresbrook, east London. was condemned to death, while the three others – Salman Saquib, Fahad Nasim, and Sheikh Adil – were sentenced to life in prison. They are appealing against their conviction.

Prosecutors, in turn, say they want to appeal against the life sentences and are asking for the death sentences of all four men. In Pakistan, prisoners sentenced to life are usually released after 25 years.

In an e-mail message to media organisations in the United States and Pakistan, a group calling itself the Movement for the Restoration of the Sovereignty of Pakistan claimed responsibility for Pearl’s kidnapping.

Pictures in the e-mails showed Pearl in captivity, with a handgun pointed at his head. A month later, a video tape sent to US officials in Karachi showed the reporter’s killing.