Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the release on Thursday of a British national who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The decision comes nearly two decades after the journalist’s body was found in a shallow grave in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. A videotape showing Pearl’s beheading, send to the U.S. consulate, came in the context of the war on terror after Sept. 11, 2001. Pearl’s murder became a portent for the cinematic violence committed by Islamic extremist groups in the years after.
The 2-1 decision was on an appeal by the Pearl family and the Pakistani government against the ruling of a provincial court last April that overturned Sheikh’s murder conviction and the convictions of three accomplices.
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