ISLAMABAD (AFP): The parents of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to reverse a decision overturning the convictions of four men in the case.
The Sindh High Court sparked outrage last month when it overturned the death sentence of British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and acquitted three other men convicted in Pearl’s 2002 kidnapping and beheading.
In a video statement, Daniel Pearl’s father Judea Pearl said, “We have filed an appeal of this decision to the Pakistan Supreme Court.”
He further said, “We are standing up for justice not only for our son but for all our dear friends in Pakistan so they can live in a society free of violence and terror and raise their children in peace and harmony.”
The lawyer representing Pearl’s parents informed an international news agency that there is substantial incriminating evidence, both oral and forensic, against the accused persons for the offenses they have been tried for.
The appeal doubles up on a petition prosecutors already filed with the court. Following the acquittals, authorities re-arrested Sheikh and the others. They will be held for at least three months while the appeals play out.
Pearl was the Wall Street Journal’s Asia bureau chief when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about militants. A graphic video showing his decapitation was sent to the US consulate nearly a month later.
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