(JTA) — A Pakistani-British man who was acquitted of charges that he was involved in the murder of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl will remain in jail for another three months at least.
The superintendent of Karachi’s Central Prison said he received an order from the Sindh provincial government to detain Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh as it appeals to the Pakistani Supreme Court to have his murder conviction reinstated, The Associated Press reported Friday. The order said Sheikh’s release would threaten public safety.
A day earlier, the Sindh High Court in Karachi had overturned the murder conviction of Saeed Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, and found him guilty of the lesser charge of kidnapping. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and his attorney said he would be released in days for time served.
Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants.
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