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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

IS MUSHARRAF PROTECTING DANIEL PEARL'S MURDERERS?

The appeals of the Daniel Pearl murderers are continuing at a snail pace but the conditions under which the murderers are held enable them to remain active in the Jihadist cause and even threaten judges. It is a side of the war on terror which attracts very little Western attention.

B. Raman uses the opportunity of Bush's visit to send an open letter to President Bush, in which he focuses on the case of Mulla Mohammed Omar, the convicted murderer of Daniel Pearl. He notes the obvious contrast to the summary judgment and execution of the men convicted for an attempt on Musharraf's own life:

. . . Omar Sheikh, the man, who orchested the kidnapping and brutal murder of Daniel Pearl, has just completed four years of comfortable life in a so-called prison in Hyderabad in the Sindh province of Pakistan without a hair of his being touched by Gen. Pervez Musharraf . . .
. . . .Omar Sheikh does not go to the gallows despite his having been sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court three years ago. From the so-called jail in Hyderabad, where he is provided with all the comforts and facilities he asks for---computers, Internet connections, fax machines etc--- he continues to mastermind acts of jihadi terrorism and anti-US demonstrations and acts of violence in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries.
Omar orchestrated the anti-US demonstrations in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the alleged descecration of the Holy Koran by the security guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba last year. His lawyers used to hold press conferences at which statements issued by the murderer of Daniel Pearl on the Holy Koran descecration allegations were distributed.
He inspired the three British nationals of Pakistani origin, who carried out the London explosions of July 7, 2005.
He orchestrated and continues to orchestrate the demonstrations in Pakistan and earlier in Afghanistan over the Danish cartoons.
Mr. President, you remember the two attempts to kill your buddy in December 2003, at Rawalpindi? Well, the guilty in those incidents have already been got tried by Musharraf, their appeals against their conviction got disposed of and those sentenced to death sent to the gallows. For your buddy, the law did not pose any difficulty in sending them to death for trying to kill him.
The same law . . . has been standing in the way of the killers of Daniel Pearl being sent to the gallows. Do you know how many times the hearing in the appeal against the conviction filed by Omar Sheikh has been got adjourned by the appellate court? Forty-one times---under some flimsy pretext or the other.
It was adjourned for the forty-first time right on the eve of your visit to Pakistan. On February 27, 2006, the Sindh High Court adjourned the hearing once again on the ground that Omar Sheikh has sacked his defence lawyer and that the killer must be given time to find and engage another lawyer.

Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 8:52 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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