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Islamabad:
A lawyer representing the mother and father of US journalist Daniel Pearl has produced a handwritten letter in Pakistan’s Supreme Court by which the important thing accused within the case claimed that he was a “scapegoat” arrested beneath “US pressure” and the actual mastermind was a Karachi-based terrorist.
Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and beheaded whereas he was in Pakistan investigating a narrative in 2002 on the hyperlinks between the nation’s highly effective spy company ISI and al-Qaeda.
British-born al-Qaeda chief Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three aides had been convicted and sentenced within the abduction and homicide case of Pearl. In April, they had been exonerated by the Sindh High Court and an enchantment towards their acquittal is being heard within the Supreme Court.
According to a Express Tribune report on Sunday, Faisal Siddiqui, counsel for Pearl’s mother and father, has produced the handwritten letter within the Supreme Court by which Sheikh claimed that the actual perpetrator was a terrorist, Attaur Rehman, from Karachi.
Siddiqui instructed the highest court docket that the letter was submitted to the Sindh High Court on July 19, 2019.
In the letter, Sheikh claimed that he was “a scapegoat” arrested on the “US pressure” and that the actual perpetrator was Rehman.
The letter was produced throughout a listening to of the appeals towards the acquittal of the 4 accused within the Pearl homicide case. A 3-judge particular bench led by Justice Mushir Alam heard the appeals of the Sindh authorities and Pearl’s mother and father, Ruth and Judie Pearl, towards the excessive court docket ruling.
Siddiqui contended that the bench should contemplate it. However, the highest court docket will determine on it on the following date of listening to on January 4, the report stated.
Sheikh additional stated in his letter that he had been in jail beneath the loss of life sentence since 2002, charged and convicted for the kidnapping and homicide of Pearl. However, it was on public document that neither did he kidnapped Pearl nor did he homicide him and it had been acknowledged by the US authorities and by Pakistan”s former president Pervez Musharraf in his ebook.
Sheikh stated his position on this case was a comparatively minor one, which didn’t warrant the loss of life sentence, including that he had already served in jail — most of which has been in unlawful solitary confinement.
According to the letter, the strain on the Pakistan authorities on the time (in 2002) by the US was so intense that Sheikh was used as a “scapegoat” to minimize that strain.
“Therefore, evidence was fabricated against me to convict me of the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl,” Sheikh claimed.
“Later, when the person (Rehman alias Naeem Bukhari) who actually abducted Daniel was arrested, he was not charged with the case because to do so would have exposed the lies and perjured evidence that the Musharraf government used to convict me,” he added.
The letter claimed that regardless of Rs 1 million reward cash on Rehman — due to his position within the case — he was not produced in court docket however was saved in secret unlawful custody of the Rangers for 5 years, then in Sukkur jail for 2 years and charged solely with a fabricated case of possession of medicine.
After Rehman’s launch, he’s alleged to have organised a few of the most devastating assaults Karachi has ever seen, together with blowing up of the Rangers Headquarters in Nazimabad, the place he was beforehand secretly held, Sheikh claimed.
The letter additionally claimed that if Ata was executed then the proof, which might show the reality about Pearl”s case, can be misplaced without end. Therefore, Sheikh requested the court docket to cross a keep order that might make sure that Rehman was not executed till testified within the Pearl case.
“The court is also requested to arrange for the hearing of this appeal without further delay on a day to day basis and to summon both me and Rehman to the court for hearing so that I may be exonerated of the fabricated charges against me and given an opportunity to clarify my actual role in this matter so that my sentence may be reduced, accordingly to one which is consistent with the requirements of justice,” the letter acknowledged.
Two days after the Sindh High Court overturned Sheikh”s conviction in April, the Sindh authorities invoked the Maintenance of Public Order to maintain the 4 convicts in jail.
Though exonerated by the court docket, the Sindh authorities has refused to set Sheikh free citing that he may pose a risk to public order.
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