Suspects in kidnap-slaying of reporter seek open trial

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Four men accused of kidnapping and killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl are challenging the government's decision to try them behind prison walls, arguing Monday that a closed trial violates Pakistani law.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, accused of masterminding the Jan. 23 kidnapping, and three accomplices are scheduled for trial April 5 before an anti-terrorism court on charges of murder, kidnapping and terrorism. Citing security reasons, the government ordered the trial be held at the jail.

In a written application, the four urged that the high court here in Sindh province order the trial to be held in an open courtroom.

Two high court judges will hear the motion, submitted by Saeed, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Sheikh Mohammed Adeel, on Thursday -- a day before the murder and kidnapping trial starts in Karachi's Central Jail.

Researching links

Pearl was kidnapped while researching links between Pakistani extremists and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami as he was allegedly trying to detonate explosives in his shoes.

In February, Saeed, 29, admitted during a court hearing that he was involved in the Pearl kidnapping but later withdrew the statement, which was not made under oath.

U.S. diplomats received a videotape the same month confirming that the 38-year-old journalist had been slain.

Saeed has also been indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in New Jersey in the kidnapping and killing of Pearl, whose wife is about to give birth to their first child. The charges carry the death penalty.

Pakistan plans to prosecute Saeed before deciding whether to hand him over to the United States. The two countries have no extradition treaty.

Much of the government's case rests on the testimony of two key witnesses, including co-defendant Naseem.

Police arrested him after tracing e-mails sent to Pakistani and U.S. news organizations to his laptop. Naseem told police he sent the e-mails, which included pictures of Pearl in captivity, on Saeed's orders.

Also, taxi driver Nasir Abbas has reportedly told police that he drove Pearl to a restaurant in Karachi the night he disappeared. Court documents show that Abbas identified Saeed as the man seen escorting Pearl into another vehicle.

After studying at the London School of Economics, Saeed joined Islamic militant groups following a visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s. He was arrested in India in 1994 for kidnapping of Western backpackers in Kashmir. He spent the next five years in jail, but was never tried.

He was freed in December 1999 after gunmen hijacked an Indian Airlines jet to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and demanded the release of Saeed and two other militants.

Seven other people have been accused in the Pearl case, but have not been apprehended.