The Hindu : Pearl is dead, Omar Sheikh tells court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 15, 2002

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Pearl is dead, Omar Sheikh tells court

KARACHI, FEB. 14. The British-born Muslim militant, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, chief suspect in the kidnapping of the U.S. journalist, Daniel Pearl, confessed to the crime today and said he believed The Wall Street Journal correspondent was dead.

The Pakistani officials dismissed the militant's claim, and The Wall Street Journal said it remained confident that Pearl was alive.

``As far as I understand, he's dead,'' Sheikh said in a courthouse here. Pearl disappeared from this port city on January 23 while investigating a story on Islamic militants.

Sheikh said he had carried out the kidnapping of ``my own free will,'' and ``I don't want to defend this case. I did this.''

His court appearance came a day after the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, met the U.S. President, George W. Bush, at the White House. Police had said Sheikh surrendered on February 12, but the militant told the court that he had been in police custody since February 5. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.

``I was not arrested. I gave myself in on February 5. I gave myself in after it became known that I was involved... to save my family from harassment,'' he said in a soft voice, barely audible at times.

Sheikh, brought to the courtroom in an armoured personnel carrier, quickly confessed to the kidnapping and criticised Pakistan's alliance with America. ``Right or wrong I had my reasons,'' he told the judge. ``I think that our country shouldn't be catering to America's needs.''

The 27-year-old Sheikh, who has a history of kidnapping Westerners _ he was arrested in India in 1994 for kidnapping three Britons and an American in Kashmir _ appeared sullen, bespectacled and surrounded by police with machine guns, helmets and bulletproof vests. He was formally charged with kidnapping and ordered jailed for two more weeks.

The Pakistan police quickly cast a doubt on Sheikh's statement. He had given no details on where or when the 38-year-old journalist was ``killed,'' and just a day earlier, he had told them Pearl was alive.

``Until the body is found, we cannot believe what Omar is saying,'' the Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider, said over telephone. ``We need proof or evidence. We will continue to work on him, grind him, ask him where was Pearl kept and where is his body. Omar himself admitted he masterminded and planned this crime.''

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Aziz Khan, also denied Sheikh's claims. ``This gentleman has been making several statements and changing these statements,'' he told reporters. ``We cannot give any credence to any of the statements that he gives.''

Steven Goldstein, spokesman for Dow Jones & Co., The Wall Street Journal's parent organisation, said he had not heard about Sheikh's statement. ``We continue to remain hopeful,'' Mr. Goldstein said. ``We remain confident that Danny is still alive.'' No representative from the paper was present at the court proceedings. Pearl's wife, Mariane, pregnant with the couple's first child, also did not attend.

_ AP

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