Pearl killing suspect handover possible

KARACHI, Pakistan -- The suspected mastermind of the abduction and slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl could be handed over to the United States to stand trial, Pakistan's foreign secretary said Friday.

Pakistan is considering the U.S. request to hand over Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is currently in custody in Pakistan and under questioning for Pearl's murder, Inamul Haq, the No. 2 man in the Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Tokyo.

"I am not ruling out the possibility of his extradition, but there is also the possibility he will first be tried in Pakistan," Haq said, without elaborating.

His comments were the strongest indication yet that Pakistan is willing to turn Saeed over to U.S. authorities despite a potential backlash against President Pervez Musharraf's government.

Earlier Friday, an Interior Ministry official in Islamabad, Abdur Rasheed Khan, told The Associated Press that Pakistan intends to prosecute Saeed on charges concerning Pearl's abduction and killing before possibly handing him over.

Legal experts said if the government wants to deliver Saeed to the United States for trial, it can do so at any time in the legal process here.

Pearl, South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped by Islamic militants in this southern port city on Jan. 23.

A videotape received last week by U.S. diplomats in Karachi showed the 38-year-old journalist being forced to say he was Jewish, followed by images of his body being decapitated.

His French-born wife, Mariane Pearl, met with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Friday.