Pearl kidnap suspect remanded, threatens US
Guru
REUTERS [ TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2002 5:15:53 PM ]
ARACHI: The suspected mastermind of the kidnapping of US reporter
Daniel Pearl, who was later brutally murdered, told a Pakistan court on
Tuesday that the United States would suffer if he was extradited, a senior
official said.
British-born militant Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh, commonly known as
Sheikh Omar, also implied his extradition would lead to a hijacking or
similar act to win his freedom.
Sheikh Omar was freed from an Indian prison in 1999 along with two
other Islamic militants in exchange for the passengers of an Indian airliner
hijacked to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
"Omar told the judge that if he is sent to the U.S., then he will
return back in the same way as he was returned from India," Raja Qureshi,
advocate-general for Sindh province, told reporters in the provincial
capital Karachi.
"He told the judge that America would suffer if he is extradited,"
Qureshi said.
Washington wants Sheikh Omar extradited -- either under a 1931 treaty
or by a simpler process adopted in previous cases between the two
countries -- but Islamabad has said it would only consider extradition once
his Pakistan trial was complete.
The Karachi court remanded Sheikh Omar and another suspect, Sheikh
Adil, in police custody for a further 10 days. The two men are among four
suspects being held in connection with the case.
As he left the court under heavy security, Sheikh Omar shouted "Allahu
Akbar (God is Greatest)" and "Down with America". Police then gagged him and
forced him towards an armoured personnel carrier.
Sheikh Adil, Salman Saquib and Fahad Naseem are accused of sending two
email messages in January containing photographs of Pearl being held
hostage.
LINKS TO PAST KIDNAPPING
Police had earlier said they expected all four men to be formally
charged with involvement in the case, but Qureshi said he was seeking a
further remand to gather more evidence.
"Further investigation is required...and expert evidence from the (US
Federal Bureau of Investigation) is also to be secured," Qureshi said.
"The dead body and its remains are also to be secured. Weapons of
offence are also required to be secured by the investigating agency," he
said. Pearl, The Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief, disappeared
in Karachi on January 23 as he worked on stories about Islamic militants in
Pakistan. He is believed to have met Sheikh Omar the evening he disappeared,
according to witnesses.
Sheikh Omar shot to prominence in 1994 when Indian police arrested
him, accusing him of involvement in the kidnapping of four Western tourists
in India.
He seemed to have gone to ground after his release from India at the
end of 1999, only for his name to surface again in connection with Pearl's
abduction.
Sheikh Omar was arrested on February 12. He has been identified in
closed-door court hearings by a Pakistani journalist who briefly assisted
Pearl, and by a taxi driver who says he dropped the reporter near a Karachi
restaurant on the evening the reporter went missing.
A videotape confirming Pearl's death was handed over to authorities in
Karachi last month, but it is unclear when or where he was killed. His body
has not been found.
A police official said experts had confirmed that the scenes shown in
the videotape were genuine and that Pearl was murdered, but said the court
would have to decide whether the film was admissible as evidence.
Among the seven suspects still on the run is Amjad Hussain Farooqi,
who police believe was another leading member of the kidnap gang.
