india

Updated: Apr 02, 2020 12:02 IST

Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, the terrorist convicted of murdering journalist Daniel Pearl, had his death sentence commuted to a prison term of seven years by a Pakistani court on Thursday.

The Sindh high court gave its verdict following appeals by Sheikh and three other men convicted of kidnapping and murdering Pearl in Karachi in 2002, the Pakistani media reported. The high court overturned the verdict of an anti-terrorism court.

Sheikh, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, was freed by India along with Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar and terrorist Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar in exchange for the passengers of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 that was hijacked by a group of Pakistani terrorists from Kathmandu to Kandahar in December 1999.

Sheikh’s death sentence was commuted to seven years in jail while the three other men convicted of Pearl’s murder were acquitted and freed by the Sindh high court.

Reports in the Pakistani media said Sheikh’s seven-year prison term will be counted as part of the 18 years he has already spent in jail.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha announced its verdict on appeals filed by the four men 18 years ago after hearing arguments by prosecution and defence lawyers and examining the records of the case.

The high court also dismissed an appeal by the prosecution seeking enhancement of life sentence given to the three other men – Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil.

Pearl, an American national and the South Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped on January 23, 2002 in Karachi and later beheaded by his captors.