A court in Pakistan sentenced British-born Islamic militant Sheikh Omar to death yesterday for the kidnap and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl, drawing a threat of reprisals and calls for Muslims to respond.
Omar, full name Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and three accomplices convicted along with him showed no emotion as each verdict and sentence was read at the end of closed-door trial. The court jailed the accomplices for life.
PHOTO: AP
But the fury was evident as relatives and lawyers spoke outside the court.
Omar's lawyer, Rai Bashir, told reporters the defense would appeal and read out a message from his client saying anyone who tried to carry out the death sentence risked a similar fate.
"I will see whether who wants to kill me will first kill me or get himself killed," Omar, 28, said in his message.
"I have been saying before, this entire [trial] is just waste of time .... It is a decisive war between Islam and kafir [infidels] and everyone is individually proving on which side he is."
The trial comes at a sensitive time for the US as it faces Muslim fury over its support for Israel in the Middle East and seeks to keep Pakistan on board in its post-Sept. 11 fight against terrorism.
Pearl's family and his widow Mariane, who gave birth to their son, Adam, in Paris on May 28, welcomed the verdict in a statement on the Web site of the Daniel Pearl Foundation.
"We, the parents, wife, and sisters of Daniel Pearl, are grateful for the tireless efforts by authorities in Pakistan and the United States to bring those guilty of Danny's kidnapping and murder to justice," they said.
"Today's verdict is the first chapter in this process. We hope and trust that the search for the remaining abductors and murderers will continue, so that all accomplices in this unthinkable crime will be brought to justice," it added.
Omar's family expressed outrage. His father, Saeed Sheikh, said the case against his son highlighted US hypocrisy.
"The jihadis [holy warriors] used to be the apple of their eye," he said, referring to US backing for the fight of mujahidin against Soviet occupation of neighboring Afghanistan. "Now they are rotten apples."
Sheikh Aslam, brother of one of the accomplices, Sheikh Adil, called on Muslims to rise up against the verdicts. "If there had been an honest decision, then no one would have been convicted," he said. "Pakistanis and Muslims should now rise up because the government has bent its knees before America."
The leader of Pakistan's main Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami, said justice had not been done and called for an open trial.
"We condemn the brutal killing of Daniel Pearl. We are against it, and we are against all types of terrorism," Qazi Hussain Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad.
"Justice has not been done in announcing the death sentence on Sheikh Omar," he added. "We want an open trial ... so everybody is satisfied justice has been done."
The streets of Hyderabad were quiet after the verdict.
While the defense said it would appeal against the verdicts, prosecutors said they would press for heavier sentences for Omar's accomplices -- Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil.
All four, bearded and wearing traditional pajama-like shalwar kameez tunics and skull caps, were made to stand, one by one, as Judge Ashraf Ali Shah read each verdict and sentence.
"There was no reaction from any of them," chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi said. "They stood, listened and sat down."
Execution in Pakistan is carried out by hanging, but usually only after an exhaustive appeals process. A life sentence generally means a maximum 25 years in jail.
Pearl, 38, was researching a story on Islamic fundamentalism for the Wall Street Journal when he was kidnapped in the port city of Karachi on Jan. 23.
A video tape emerged clearly showing he had been killed. Police found a body in a shallow grave outside Karachi in May but it has not been officially announced as being Pearl.
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