US ‘outraged’ by Pakistan order to free accused killer of journalist Daniel Pearl
- Biden spokeswoman calls the decision to release convicted mastermind Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three accomplices ‘an affront to terrorism victims everywhere’
- Pearl was abducted in Karachi while researching a story on Islamist militants and later beheaded
The White House said it was “outraged” on Thursday after Pakistan’s top court upheld the acquittal and ordered the release of the militant convicted of masterminding the 2002 beheading of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
Joe Biden’s administration is “outraged by the Pakistani Supreme Court’s decision”, his chief spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, underscoring the uneasy alliance between Washington and Islamabad, which has fractured many times over Islamist militancy.
She called the ruling “an affront to terrorism victims everywhere” and demanded the Pakistani government “review its legal options”.
The White House statement came after Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who had been convicted of masterminding the brutal murder of Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, by jihadists.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s government on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to review its decision to free Sheikh and his co-accused, the Pearl family’s lawyer Faisal Siddiqi said.