Court frees suspect in Daniel Pearl murder

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 11 years ago

Syed Hashim, a suspect in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, was released by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Hyderabad. The court cited lack of evidence in the case, which has seen several convictions since Pearl's kidnapping and murder in 2002.

Summary

HYDERABAD: One of the suspects in American journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder case was freed by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Hyderabad on Friday.

Syed Hashim, one of the alleged suspects involved in kidnapping and murdering Pearl (pictured), was arrested in 2008. Newly-posted presiding officer of ATC Abdul Ghafoor Memon buried the case citing lack of evidence.

Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal, was abducted and killed in Karachi on January 23, 2002.

A special anti-terrorism court had awarded death sentence to the mastermind, Ahmed Omer Sheikh, while the co-accused, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Adil, were handed life imprisonments in 2002, after being found guilty of kidnapping and beheading the foreign journalist.- Online

KEY POINTS:

• Syed Hashim freed by Anti-Terrorism Court in Hyderabad
• Court cited lack of evidence for release
• Daniel Pearl was kidnapped on January 23, 2002
• Ahmed Omer Sheikh received death sentence in the case
• Co-accused received life imprisonments in 2002