Militants Convicted in Pearl Slaying By KATHY GANNON : Associated Press Writer

Jul 15, 2002 : 1:21 am ET

HYDERABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A Pakistani judge on Monday convicted four Islamic militants in the kid nap-slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl and sentenced one of them to death. The others received 25 years imprisonment.

Lawyers for the chief defendant, British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and the three others said they would appeal. Saeed was sentenced to hang for his role in the Jan. 23 abduction of Pearl, 38, the South Asia correspondent for the newspaper.

The trial has fanned the anger of Islamic militants against Pakistan's government, which many extremists feel betrayed them by abandoning the Afghan Taliban and supporting the United States after Sept. 11.

Pearl disappeared in Karachi while researching Pakistani's Islamic extremist movement, including possible links to Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight between Paris and Miami with explosives in his shoes. A videotape sent in February to U.S. diplomats confirmed Pearl was dead.

Reporters were barred from the courtroom inside the heavily guarded jail here when Judge Ali Ashraf Shah handed down the verdict. Deputy defense lawyer Mohsin Imam informed journalists of the decision against Sheikh, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Adil.

The defendants were collectively fined $32,000, and chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi said the money would go to Pearl's widow Mariane and their infant son, who was born after his father was killed.

Seven more suspects, including those who apparently killed Pearl, remain at large.

"We continue to mourn Danny Pearl," said Steven Goldstein, vice president of Dow Jones & Co., parent company of The Wall Street Journal. "And we continue to hope that everyone responsible for his kidnapping and murder will be brought to justice. Today's verdict is one step in that direction."

Security was heavy at the Hyderabad jail as the verdict was announced. Sharpshooters manned rooftop positions across the streets and police sealed off the street in front of the walled compound.

"The government will impose the decision at the behest of the United States," said Sheikh Aslam, Adil's brother, as he arrived to hear the verdict. "All executive decisions in Pakistan are being imposed by the United States."

Before the verdict, defense lawyer Rai Bashir claimed the prosecution had offered "no substantive evidence" against his clients and said he expected an acquittal "unless the verdict is influenced by the government of Pakistan and the government of the United States of America."

Western diplomats and some Pakistani observers fear the kidnap-slaying of the 38-year-old journalist was the first shot in a war between Islamic extremists and this country's Western-backed government.

Pakistani newspapers Saturday received an Urdu-language e-mail purportedly from Asif Ramzi, one of those sought in the Pearl case, threatening more attacks against foreigners.

Soon after the kidnapping, e-mails received by Pakistani and Western news organizations from the previously unknown National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty showed Pearl in captivity and demanded better treatment for Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The first e-mail called Pearl a CIA agent; a second claimed he was working for the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad. Pearl's family denied both allegations.

Saeed and his co-defendants denied involvement in the kidnapping and accused the government of fabricating the case to appease American anger. Saeed admitted a role the kidnapping during his initial court appearance Feb. 14 but later recanted.

Saeed was believed to have links with some of the country's most violent Islamic extremist groups. The trial began April 22 in Karachi but was moved to Hyderabad, about 110 miles away, after prosecutors said they were receiving death threats.

On the highway between Karachi and Hyderabad, graffiti painted in black lettering on concrete barriers proclaimed: "America, your death is coming," and "The war will continue until America is finished."

Prosecutors alleged that Saeed, a former student at the London School of Economics, lured Pearl to a Karachi restaurant with the promise of a meeting with an Islamic cleric, who has been cleared of any involvement in the kidnapping.

The prosecution relied heavily on technical evidence provided by the FBI, which traced the e-mails to co-defendant Fahad Naseem, who in turn identified Saeed and the others. Naseem said Saeed told him that he intended to grab someone who was "anti-Islam and a Jew," police reported.

The key prosecution witness, taxi driver Nasir Abbas, testified he saw Pearl get into a car with Saeed in front of a Karachi restaurant on the night the reporter vanished. The defense claimed Abbas was pressured into his statement.

The United States has asked for Saeed's extradition to face U.S. charges in the Pearl case and in the 1994 kidnapping in India of an American, who was freed unharmed.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002