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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON, MARCH 15. A Federal Grand Jury has indicted Omar Saeed Sheikh in the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl, South Asia Bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department has said that it will seek to extradite Omar Sheikh from Pakistan. "We are signalling our clear interest in trying him on these charges and in bringing him to justice in the United States,'' the Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, said at a press conference. If convicted here, Omar Sheikh faces the death penalty. The U.S. and Pakistan have no formal extradition treaty, but in the past Islamabad has been cooperative in turning over key persons sought by the administration under a process called "rendering'', it is explained. In the last several weeks the Justice Department and the State Department are said to have been in active consultation on how to go about the case. Legal issues aside, the Bush administration has also to keep in mind the political aspect involving the Musharraf Government. According to the Attorney-General, Omar Sheikh was in charge of a group of co-conspirators "who carefully and methodically set a death-trap for Daniel Pearl, lured him into it with lies and savagely ended his life''. Mr. Ashcroft met the widow of Pearl on Thursday morning and pledged that justice would be done. The indictment is also out of a concern that Saeed could be released on some grounds in Pakistan. "We think it is important to have charges in place if, for some reason, he would be in any way released. We are collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interest,'' Mr. Ashcroft said. The U.S. has been pressing Pakistan to hand over Omar Sheikh for the 1994 kidnapping of an American national in India. There is a sealed indictment to this effect. AP, AFP report from Islamabad: Pakistan will not hand over to the United States Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, ``Investigations are going on,'' the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said. ``Once the investigations are completed, it would be decided whether he has to be tried here or to be extradited.'' Pakistan does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S., although officials of the two Governments are considering ways for his hand over. Meanwhile, Khwaja Naveed, the lawyer for three co-accused in the case who allegedly sent e-mails showing Pearl in captivity said in Karachi that the U.S. had no jurisdiction to try the British-born Pakistani Sheikh Omar. ``It's surprising that he has been indicted in the Pearl case because the U.S. courts have no territorial jurisdiction here, and the incident took place in Pakistan,'' he said.
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