(JTA) — A suspect in the execution-style murder of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was released by a Pakistani court due to lack of evidence.
Qari Hashim was arrested in 2005, three years after Pearl’s murder. He was accused of introducing Pearl to British-born terrorist Omar Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 by a Pakistani anti-terror court for being the mastermind behind Pearl’s kidnapping and execution. Three others accused of involvement in Pearl’s abduction were sentenced to life in prison.
Hashim was released by a Pakistani anti-terror court in the southern city of Hyderabad on Friday
Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, was researching a story about Islamist militants when he was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002. He was murdered a month later. His body was found in May 2002.
His final words as he was about to be beheaded — an act that was captured on camera and widely distributed — were “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.”
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