Daniel Pearl Murder Case: detention of Omar Sheikh, others nullified

The detention of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and others in the Daniel Pearl Murder Case termed ‘null and void’ by the Sindh High Court on Thursday.

According to the details, Sindh High Court nullified notification to imprison Omar Sheikh and others involved in the US journalist Daniel Pearl murder case. The court ordered them to put them on the Exit Control List and release them immediately.

The court observed that the accused have been in jail for the last 18 years and ordered the accused to appear as and when the court summons them.

Assistant Attorney General earlier informed the court that the provincial government has the authority to keep an accused in detention.

On April 2, this year, the court heard their appeals against the sentence after 18 years and acquitted Sheikh, Saqib and Nasim.

It commuted Sheikh’s death sentence to seven years and imposed a fine on him. Sheikh has already spent 18 years in prison on death row and his seven-year sentence for kidnapping was counted as time served.

The men were, however, detained under Section 11 EEEE (preventive detention for inquiry) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The law states that the government may issue preventive detention of any person accused of terrorism for a period of 90 days and it cannot be challenged in court.

The first notification was issued the day the men were acquitted and the second one three months after they completed their detention period.

Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story on extremists.