The four men acquitted after 18 years in prison in Pakistan for the abduction and murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearl saw their detention extended for at least three months, AFP learned on Thursday from a prison source.
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" We have received requests from the (provincial) government to detain them for an additional three months, " a prison official in southern Sindh province told AFP on condition of anonymity. Omar Sheikh, a British extremist also known as Sheikh Omar or Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, had seen his death sentence commuted in early April to 7 years in prison, a period covered by his 18 years of detention.
The Sindh High Court had also acquitted his three accomplices, notably accused of having claimed the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl. But the province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital, had appealed at the end of March against this decision, leading to their return to detention for the first period of three months. Daniel Pearl's parents also appealed the acquittals to the Pakistan Supreme Court in May, which is expected to be heard in September.
Beheaded in 2002
Daniel Pearl, 38, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal , disappeared on January 23, 2002 in Karachi. A video showing his beheading was given a month later to the US consulate in this megalopolis.
An independent investigation carried out for three years within the framework of the “ Pearl Project ” had determined in 2011 that the Pakistani justice had gone astray, the four men condemned for the assassination of the journalist were not even present during his execution.
According to Asra Nomani, a former colleague and a friend of Daniel Pearl, who had directed this investigation, it is indeed Khaled Cheikh Mohammed (KSM according to his initials in English), the self-claimed brain of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United Unis, who had executed him. " KSM ", arrested in 2003, is detained in the American prison at Guantanamo, located in Cuba. A psychologist who interviewed him said that the inmate had confessed to him that he had beheaded the American journalist.
