Pearl trial to shift venues

THE WASHINGTON POST

Originally published Friday, May 3, 2002

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The trial of four men charged with the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl moves to a new city today, after prosecutors complained of death threats from inside and outside the courtroom.

Testimony will resume before a new judge -- the third in the trial's short life -- in the city of Hyderabad, 110 miles northeast of Karachi, where Pearl was kidnapped Jan. 23. Prosecutor Raja Qureshi requested the change after four law enforcement agencies reported uncovering plans to blow up the Karachi City Jail, where the trial convened last month.

Qureshi also complained that two of the defendants had made threatening gestures from behind the bars that separate court officers from prisoners in the makeshift courtroom.

"In our Eastern world, when we just put a hand on the chin and slide it down and make a box of your fist, that is understood to be a threatening gesture," Qureshi said in a telephone interview. The prosecutor had complained to the judge that two of the defendants, former police officer Sheik Adil and Salman Squib, made such gestures in the courtroom last week. When Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon failed to admonish the defendants, Qureshi asked for a new judge, complaining the defendants were "beyond the control" of Memon.

Bomb threats

A Pakistani official said the bomb threats came from Muslim militants associated with Jaish-i-Mohammed, a group whose members include Sheik Omar Saeed, the British citizen charged with masterminding Pearl's kidnapping. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, offered no details, and police reports offered in court to support the prosecution claims remained confidential.

Pakistan's principal intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, has had an intimate familiarity with Jaish-i-Mohammed dating to the years when the government actively but discreetly supported Islamic militants. When Saeed faced kidnapping charges in neighboring India in 1994, his defense attorneys were paid by ISI, according to another Pakistani official, who also requested anonymity.

The legal fees were paid in Britain by the ISI station chief in Pakistan's London embassy, the official said.

In addition, when Saeed emerged as a suspect in the Pearl case, he surrendered Feb. 5 in the presence of Ejaz Shah, a former top ISI official now working as home secretary of Punjab province, according to officials and a court brief filed by Saeed's wife.

Officials acknowledge Omar remained in ISI custody for a week, while Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf paid a high-profile visit to Washington, where he said he was "relatively certain" Pearl remained alive. Musharraf also suggested Pearl had been caught up in "intelligence games."

After Saeed's arrest was announced Feb. 12, he shocked onlookers in his first court appearance by confessing to his role in Pearl's abduction and announcing the reporter was probably dead.

In Hyderabad, antiterrorism Judge Ali Ashraf Shah will pick up the case where Memon left off last week, relying on the written record to catch up. The proceedings will continue to be held in jail and remain closed to the press and other members of the public.

So far, testimony has centered on establishing that Saeed met Pearl while the reporter was researching the trail of Richard Reid, the Briton charged with trying to bring down a transatlantic flight on Dec. 22 with explosives concealed in his shoes. A taxi driver testified to seeing Pearl get into a car with Saeed in Karachi the day the reporter disappeared.

A videotape documenting the mutilation of Pearl's body was delivered Feb. 21 to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. His body has not been found.

More than 20 prosecution witnesses remain to testify, including the FBI computer experts who tracked e-mails containing threats to kill Pearl and demands for his ransom. Qureshi said Pearl's widow, freelance journalist Marianne Pearl, was also expected to testify. However, because she is in her native France preparing to deliver their first child, her testimony will be taken by court officials in England, which unlike France has a formal judicial arrangement with Pakistan for such occasions.

All four suspects on trial face the death penalty if convicted, as would seven others who are still being sought. Should Saeed, 28, be acquitted in Pakistan, he would face charges before a U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where he was indicted for conspiracy to commit hostage-taking that resulted in Pearl's death.

Saeed has also been indicted for his alleged role in the 1994 kidnappings in India, in which one of the captives was an American tourist, Bella Nuss.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to Terror in America index