Pakistan - Pearl murder suspect's father denies bin Laden link

Reuters ^ | 02 July, 2002 | Aamir Ashraf

[swarthyguy]

HYDERABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The father of the main suspect in the kidnap and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl denied on Monday that his son had any links with Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

Saeed Sheikh, father of British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, alleged kidnap and murder mastermind also known as Sheikh Omar, made the statement to reporters after appearing in a Pakistani court trying his son and three men behind closed doors.

Lawyers said the prosecution cross-examined Saeed Sheikh, a wholesale cloth merchant from Wanstead in northeast London, at Monday's hearing in a jail in the southern city of Hyderabad.

"There is no link between Sheikh Omar and Osama. There is no connection between the two," Saeed Sheikh told reporters later.

The prosecution accuses Omar of masterminding Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl's abduction and murder and the other three of following his instructions. All four have denied the charges.

Chief Prosecutor Raja Qureshi said he asked Saeed Sheikh 54 questions on his son's alleged links with bin Laden, Islamic militant groups and militant activities in Afghanistan, Bosnia and India, and Sheikh responded to most with "I don't know".

"All these questions relate to one aspect that he (Omar) conducted terrorist activities in India, Bosnia...and we have a track record of Omar being a terrorist," Qureshi told reporters.

But Sheikh described the questions as "absolutely rubbish".

He told reporters: "The questions of the prosecution were a desperate attempt to malign Omar and to project a negative image about him."

The trial will resume on July 14.

Pearl went missing in the southern port city of Karachi on January 23 while working on reports about Islamic militants.

A month later, a gruesome video showing Pearl had been murdered was delivered to U.S. consulate officials in Karachi.

Police found a body in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Karachi last month but have not yet confirmed the remains are those of Pearl.

The trial opened on April 5 but has been frequently adjourned

[swarthyguy]

Pearl ping.

[MinuteGal]

Deny, deny, or "can't remember", my brain is Jell-0.....

Sound familiar?

Leni

[swarthyguy]

My pessimistic view leads me to believe that an acquittal will be handed down. Hope i'm wrong.

[aristeides]

Indexing.

[hgro]

The press is in ecstacy over this Pearl thing. My question is: why would some supposedly intelligent person bring his pregnant wife to the black hole of Pakistan and then hop into a cab with people he knew were murderous scum? The answer is, no intelligent person would. This guy was an opportunist who sadly paid the supreme penalty.

[swarthyguy]

Fine call him an opportunist; shoot, call him a jerk and an idiot. But he did not deserve a beheading. He should not have gone, i agree. HE was safe in Bombay.

But this is what reporters do; chase the story.

Funny thing, what you say is what our friendly general, Musharraf said when he visited DC. He implied that Pearl got what was coming to him.

[Dog Gone]

Pearl had to think he was some kind of superman to be a Jew and an American and STILL think it was a good idea to meet with the most dangerous terrorists on the planet ALONE. That would be like a black reporter for a New York newspaper in the 1880's seeking out an interview with the Grand Wizard of the KKK in Mississippi. Calling it stupid would be too mild.

I don't think the outcome of this trial is in doubt at all. Musharraf can't allow him to be found not guilty.

[swarthyguy]

Yes, especially when it had only been a few weeks before that the WSJ was touting its handover of a laptop found in Kabul to the CIA/FBI. In the Indian press, there were interviews with the people who hung out at a jazz club in Bombay where he played. They ALL told him not to go, but the story was too juicy for him to pass on.

[swarthyguy]

"I don't think the outcome of this trial is in doubt at all. Musharraf can't allow him to be found not guilty.

Has anything happened in the trial to give you reasons for saying that with such emphatic certitude. I can well understand why Musharraf would want to keep him quiet, but what specifically makes you think this trial is not headed for an acquittal.

It's been going on for almost three months at a leisurely rate. If Musharraf, a military dictator wanted it done, he could easily have done that by invoking a military tribunal. Pakistan is under military rule, and martial law would certainly give Musharraf the power to do that.

There's no positive identification of the corpse they found. No DNA and haven't heard about the dental, unless i've missed it. Maybe they beheaded him but didn't bury him with the rest of the dismembered body, whoever that is, since all they've identified is a similar jacket and skin color. The lack of the severed head could be the reason no dental id has been heard about.

[swarthyguy]

See this post here too.

http://www.freerepublic.com/fo cus/news/709707/posts