Pakistani suspect admits to role in Daniel Pearl’s killing

ISLAMABAD: After 18 years of denial, the Pakistani suspect convicted and later acquitted in the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl has told a court he played a “minor”

role

in the killing, the Pearl family lawyer said on Wednesday. A letter handwritten by Ahmad Saeed Omar

Sheikh

in 2019, in which he admits limited involvement in the killing of the

Wall Street Journal

reporter, was submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court nearly two weeks ago. It wasn’t until Wednesday that Sheikh’s lawyers confirmed their client wrote it.


The stunning turn of events came as a Pakistani HC is hearing an appeal of a lower court’s acquittal of Sheikh, who was initially charged with murder in the beheading of Pearl. The appeal was filed by Pearl’s family and the Pakistan government. Nowhere in the three-page letter addressed to the

Sindh High Court

did Sheikh elaborate or say exactly what his allegedly “minor” role in Pearl’s slaying involved.

Pearl family attorney Faisal Siddiqi called Sheikh’s confirmation that he wrote the letter a “dramatic development” and demanded the conviction and the

death sentence

for Sheikh be reinstated. “This is very, very important because for the last 18 years the position of Omar Saeed Sheikh was that he did not know Danny Pearl, he never met Danny Pearl,” Siddiqi said. “He has not asked that he be acquitted. He accepts his guilt but asks that his sentence may be reduced,” he added.

In the letter, Sheikh writes that “my role in this matter was a relatively

minor

one, which does not warrant the death sentence.” A copy of the letter was obtained by the AP.

However, Sheikh’s lawyer, Mehmood A. Sheikh, insisted that his client wrote the letter under duress and that he did not know or have any connection to Pearl. AP