The Pakistani Anti-Terrorism Court's verdict against the four accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case has been published in full in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The passage covering the sentences on the four accused issued by Judge Syed Ali Ashraf Shah reads:

I have... arrived at the conclusion that all the four accused persons are guilty of offences under Sections 120-A PPC, 365-A, 302 PPC read with Section 6(a) of the Anti Terrorism Act, 1997.

Now coming to the aspect of sentence in view of the Terrorist Activities of accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh it appears that this accused had engineered entire plan of creating sense of fear nationally and internationally and thereby made conspiracy and he was a Principal Offender and he made with his efforts the other remaining accused to be his aiders/associates for the purpose of completion of his above plan involving the sense of fear, insecurity nationally and internationally.

I, therefore, convict accused persons under Section 365-A, 302 PPC read with Section 6(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and S. 120-A PPC, and thereupon as a result accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh is sentenced to death under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, to be hanged by the neck till he is dead.

The other accused persons namely, Adil Shaikh, Salman Saqib and Fahad Naseem - are sentenced under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 to suffer life imprisonment. They are also sentenced to pay fine of Rs. 500,000 each. In case of non-payment of fine, these accused persons shall undergo sentence for five (5) years more.

This court also direct all the four accused persons to pay jointly a sum of Rs. 2,000,000, which shall be paid by them in equal share and if this amount is paid it shall be given to the widow of Daniel Pearl and also to his orphan son.

The imprisonment sentences shall run concurrently and benefit of Section 382-B Cr.P.C. is given to the accused persons. The death sentence so awarded will be executed subject to the confirmation by the Honourable High Court of Sindh, for which the reference is separately made to the Honourable High Court of Sindh.

Announced in open court in jail (Central Prison Hyderabad). Dated this the 15th day of July 2002.

(Syed Ali Ashraf Shah) Judge Anti-Terrorism Court Hyderabad & Mirpurkahs Divisions at Hyderabad.

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