Pakistan’s Sindh High Court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of British national Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted in 2002 of killing the Wall Street Journal reporter in Karachi, Pakistan, that same year. Sheikh’s sentence was reduced to seven years of imprisonment by downgrading the murder conviction to a kidnapping offense. The court also overturned the convictions of three other Pakistanis accused of being accomplices in the case: Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil. They had been sentenced to life in prison.
“The court has commuted Omar’s death sentence to a seven-year sentence,” Khawaja Naveed, a lawyer for the defense, told reporters on Thursday.
“The murder charges were not proven, so he was given seven years for the kidnapping,” Naveed said, also noting that Sheikh had already spent 18 years in jail.
The court’s decision was slammed by American officials, prompting Pakistani authorities to issue an emergency order to prevent the release of all four men. Under the emergency order, Sheikh and his accomplices will remain in jail for three months while prosecutors “seek a suspension of the appeals court ruling until it is reviewed by the Supreme Court,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
On Friday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the court’s ruling on Thursday had undermined Pakistan’s efforts to fight terrorism.
“I am shocked at the decision, especially its timing,” Qureshi is quoted as telling a local news channel, the Wall Street Journal reported. “This verdict, for no reason, has put a question mark over Pakistan’s efforts.”
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry on Friday also expressed disapproval of the Sindh High Court’s Thursday order.
“[The] Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan reiterates its commitment to follow due process under the laws of the country to bring terrorists to task,” the ministry said in a Friday statement, the Wall Street Journal reported.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also tweeted on Friday that the US “will not forget Daniel Pearl,” and that the US will continue to “demand justice for his brutal murder.”
Pearl was the Wall Street Journal’s bureau chief for South Asia and was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002 while reporting on religious extremism in Pakistan.