Injustice for slain WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl: Pakistan springs murder conspirators

While the rest of the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan is busy letting murderers go free.

On Thursday, a Pakistani local court overturned the conviction of a British-Pakistani man for orchestrating the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl in 2002.

A full 18 years after the fact, the court found Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheik guilty of the lesser charge of kidnapping and sentenced him to seven years in prison. He’ll likely get out for time already served.

With much of Pakistan sympathetic to violent Islamists, the move reeks of corruption. Tellingly, the court also overturned the convictions of three other men who had been serving life sentences in the case.

On Jan. 23, 2002, Saeed lured Danny Pearl into a trap in Karachi with a promise of info for his investigation of “shoebomber” Richard Reid’s links to militants there. Days later, al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed videotaped his gruesome murder of the reporter.

As Pearl’s father, Judea, said, “It’s a mockery of justice.” He continues: “Anyone with a minimal sense of right and wrong now expects Faiz Shah, prosecutor general of [the Pakistani province] Sindh to do his duty and appeal this reprehensible decision to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

Saeed & Co. should rot behind bars until their own Judgment Day.

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