A Pakistani court on Thursday again adjourned an appeal hearing for four Islamic militants convicted of the abduction and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl because a key defence lawyer failed to show up. British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in July 2002 for masterminding the crime, while his three co-accused -- Sheikh Adil, Fahad Naseem and Salman Saqib -- were jailed for life. The convicts appealed to a two-member bench of the Sindh provincial High Court on July 19, 2002, challenging the verdict. The government also appealed to the same court, asking for enhancement of the punishment. However not a single formal hearing of the case has been held so far -- mostly because of the absence of lawyers representing the convicts.
On Thursday, the court received a telegram from one of the defence lawyers, Rai Basheer, saying he could not attend due to illness. "Defence lawyers are trying to drag the case," deputy prosecutor Habib Ahmed told Reuters. No date was fixed for a new hearing. Sheikh is being held at a high security jail in Rawalpindi, while the three other convicts are in a prison in the southern city of Hyderabad. Pearl, 38, was researching a story on Islamic fundamentalism when he was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 and later beheaded. |