| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Pearl murder case suspect ill, SHC told |
| 2014-05-20 |
[DAWN] The Sindh High Court on Monday was informed that an accused in the murder of Wall Street Journal news hound Daniel Pearl who was incarceratedYouse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! over eight years ago has fallen ill due to an inordinate delay in the trial. A single bench of the SHC headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar was seized with an application of defendant Mohammad Hashim for the transfer of his trial from an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... The court directed the assistant prosecutor general to file comments on the matter by May 26, the next date of hearing. The 38-year-old US national and South Asia Bureau Chief of the WSJ, who was researching a story on religious murderous Moslems, was kidnapped on Jan 23, 2002 in Karachi and later beheaded by his captors. The main accused criminal mastermind, Ahmed Omer Sheikh, was condemned to death on charges of kidnapping and killing the US journalist, while his three accomplices -- Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammad Adil -- were given life term and fine of Rs50,000 each by an ATC in Hyderabad on July 15, 2002. The court had also directed the convicts to pay Rs2 million to the victim's widow, Mariane Pearl. Accused Hashim, arrested on Sept 6, 2005, was among the seven others who were declared absconders in the case. On Monday, the counsel for Hashim informed the court that his trial had come to a halt following the transfer of the presiding judge of the ATC Hyderabad, Javed Alam. He said the newly posted judge, Abdul Ghafoor Memon, had already declined to proceed with the case when he had been the presiding judge of the ATC-II in Karachi. The counsel said the delay in his trial was a gross violation of the anti-terrorism laws that required speedy trial of the accused persons. He said that the inordinate delay had added to the suffering of the applicant who had fallen ill. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The counsel said the delay in his trial was a gross violation of the anti-terrorism laws that required speedy trial of the accused persons. He said that the inordinate delay had added to the suffering of the applicant who had fallen ill. Maybe he'd be more OK with the delay if he knew that the punishment if he were found guilty would be to have his head sawed off with a bamboo saw. |
| Posted by: gorb 2014-05-20 14:15 |