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Sheikh Omar, 10 others charged with Pearl's murder

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Friday formally charged Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Sheikh Omar Saeed and ten others with the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

"The formal trial will commence on March 29," chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi said after filing an interim charge sheet with the anti-terrorism court in Karachi.

He also ruled out any immediate possibility of extraditing Omar to the United States.

If convicted all of them could face the death penalty.

"Once a trial commences then the person cannot be extradited unless the trial has been concluded, and if convicted he has served out the sentence," Qureshi was quoted as saying.

The prosecutors also submitted a list of 21 witnesses, including the slain journalist's widow Marianne Pearl, to testify at the trial.

The rest are, however, police witnesses.

Seven of those charged are absconding. Notable among them is Amjad Hussain Faroqui alias Haider Farroqui alias Hasan Mansoor, who Omar has reportedly identified as one of the hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight in 1999.

PTI

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