The Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of the key accused in the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, Reuters reported. The United States and India both expressed outrage over the ruling.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others had been arrested for the journalist’s killing in 2002. Sheikh, a British national, was given the death penalty.
However in April last year, the High Court in Pakistan’s Sindh state overturned their murder conviction, citing a lack of evidence, according to CNN. Sheikh’s conviction was reduced to a charge of kidnapping.
The court said that the men had suffered “suffered irreparable harm and extreme prejudice” after being in jail for 18 years. It ordered their release in December. Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling despite appeals from Pearl’s family and Pakistani authorities.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ruling was an “affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including…