Charges delayed in Wall Street Journal reporter's death

Posted 8:29AM on Monday 25th February 2002 ( 22 years ago )

KARACHI, Pakistan - Three Islamic militants believed to have participated in the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl appeared in court Monday. They were ordered jailed for two more weeks while prosecutors develop their case. The accused had been expected to face murder and kidnapping charges. But in a closed-door hearing, the judge delayed the charges to give police a chance to recover Pearl's body, said Raja Quereshi, the chief prosecutor. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the alleged mastermind behind Pearl's abduction and murder, and two of his alleged accomplices arrived at a courthouse in the southern port city of Karachi in two armored personnel carriers that were part of an eight-vehicle convoy. Each suspect wore a hood made of white cloth, their faces completely covered. During the proceedings at a special anti-terrorism court, all three defendants complained that police had forced them to sign blank pieces of paper as part of coerced confessions, said defense attorney Khawaja Naveed. He said the judge, Shabir Ahmed, ordered police to refrain from such action. In a court appearance Feb. 14, Saeed confessed to Pearl's kidnapping. Court officials later said that would not be enough to convict him because he was not under oath at the time. On Monday, Naveed quoted Saeed as saying: "I don't want to make any confession." Quereshi, the prosecutor, said none of the suspects complained of any ill treatment by police. The prosecution, he said, informed the judge that authorities are looking for several suspects still at large. Quereshi identified them as Amjad Faruqi, Asim, Hashim Qadeer, Imtiaz Siddiqi, Ahmed Bhai and one unidentified suspect who police believe photographed Pearl. In their hunt for the remaining suspects, police believe they may have found a link to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, citing the involvement of three Arabs who were allegedly seen accompanying a key suspect. Those appearing in court Monday are Saeed and two men accused of sending e-mails announcing Pearl's Jan. 23 kidnapping. U.S. and Pakistani authorities on Friday revealed the contents of a grisly videotape showing Pearl's dead body, which has not been found. The accused had already surrendered or been arrested by the time the videotape became public. The tape does not indicate when or where the slaying took place. A third accused e-mailer, 21-year-old Fahad Naseem, was not in court Monday. In a closed-door deposition last week, Naseem admitted sending e-mails announcing Pearl's kidnapping on orders of Saeed. Police already had found the e-mails on Naseem's laptop computer. "My line of defense will be that he's a man who became part of this without realizing its gravity," said Naveed, who is representing the three accused e-mailers. Naseem sent the e-mails - one of which included a photograph of the 38-year-old journalist with a gun to his head - without knowing their contents, Naveed claimed. Naveed said he has not been allowed to see Naseem or his other two clients since they were taken into custody two weeks ago. Kidnapping and murder are capital offenses in Pakistan, carrying the death penalty. "I will plead with the court not to treat him too harshly," Naveed said of Naseem. He said the two co-defendants - Sheikh Mohammed Adeel, a constable with the police department's special branch, and Naseem's cousin, Salman Saqib - have not confessed to any crime and will not do so. Mohammed Aslam, Adeel's brother, insisted Monday that Adeel was innocent but confirmed that his brother has been involved in Islamic "holy war" activities for years. As early as December, he said Adeel spent time in Afghanistan to support that country's now ousted Taliban regime. Saeed, the suspected mastermind, was taken into custody Feb. 5. He told interrogators that his group wanted to teach the United States a lesson and that Pearl's murder was just a first step, intelligence officials said. Newsweek magazine reported Sunday that Saeed has been indicted in the United States, raising the possibility that he could eventually be extradited. The United States and Pakistan do not have an extradition treaty. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said bringing Saeed and others to the United States to stand trial is a possibility. "The United States government may very well want to try to extradite the people involved if possible for the killing of an American, which would seem to me as a non-lawyer to be a reasonable thing," Rumsfeld said on CBS's "Face the Nation." Authorities offered little information Sunday about the identity of the three Arab suspects or what role they may have played. But their alleged involvement - combined with investigators' revelation that Saeed said he met personally with bin Laden in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States - suggested an al-Qaida link. Police believe a dozen or more people were involved in Pearl's abduction and murder, and that most of them have spent time in Afghanistan as supporters of the Taliban. Before his abduction, Pearl had been investigating alleged links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December for allegedly trying to ignite explosives in his sneakers during a Paris-Miami flight. With Saeed in jail, the prime target of a massive police dragnet is Amjad Faruqi, who is believed to have carried out the kidnapping. A senior police investigator said one detainee said he met Faruqi several times and each time Faruqi was accompanied by three Arabs.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/202957

Charges delayed in Wall Street Journal reporter&#39;s death

Charges delayed in Wall Street Journal reporter's death