British-born Islamic militant sentenced to hang for journalist's murder

A British-born Islamic militant was today sentenced to death in Pakistan for his role in the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Lawyers for Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and three co-defendants who each received 25 years imprisonment, said they would appeal. Saeed was sentenced to hang for his part in the abduction last January of Mr Pearl, aged 38, South Asia correspondent for the Wall Street5 Journal.

Pakistani authorities are braced for a violent reaction by Islamic extremists. Police helicopters patrolled the skies over Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a centre of militant activity.

Pakistani newspapers on Saturday received an Urdu-language e-mail purportedly from Asif Ramzi, one of seven suspects still sought in the Pearl case, threatening more attacks against foreigners.

In the capital Islamabad, Interior Ministry official Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said security had been strenghtened at "all important places and installations" nationwide. Officials said additional security was placed at foreign embassies in the capital.

Reporters were barred from the courtroom inside the heavily guarded jail here when Judge Ali Ashraf Shah handsed down his verdict. Deputy defence lawyer Mohsin Imam informed journalists of the decision.

Mr Pearl disappeared in Karachi while researching Pakistani's Islamic extremist movement, including possible links to British-born Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight between Paris and Miami with explosives in his shoes. A gruesome videotape sent in February to US diplomats confirmed Pearl was dead.

Prosecutors alleged that Saeed, a former student at the London School of Economics, lured Mr Pearl to a Karachi restaurant with the promise of a meeting with an Islamic cleric, who has been cleared of any involvement in the kidnapping.

The key prosecution witness, taxi driver Nasir Abbas, testified he saw Pearl get into a car with Saeed in front of a Karachi restaurant on the night the reporter vanished. The defence claimed Abbas was pressured into his statement.

The four defendants — who also included Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Adil — were collectively fined two million rupees ($32,000), and chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi said the money would go to Pearl's widow Mariane and their infant son, who was born after his father was killed.

In New York, Steven Goldstein, vice president of the Journal's parent company Dow Jones, said: "We continue to mourn Danny Pearl. And we continue to hope that everyone responsible for his kidnapping and murder will be brought to justice. Today's verdict is one step in that direction."

However, the trial has fanned the anger of Islamic militants against Pakistan's government, which many extremists feel betrayed them by abandoning the Afghan Taliban and supporting the United States after 11 September.

"The government will impose the decision at the behest of the United States," said Sheikh Aslam, brother of defendant Sheikh Adil, as he arrived to hear the verdict. "All executive decisions in Pakistan are being imposed by the United States."

Before the verdict, defence lawyer Rai Bashir claimed the prosecution had offered "no substantive evidence" against his clients and said he expected an acquittal "unless the verdict is influenced by the government of Pakistan and the government of the United States of America."

Soon after the kidnapping, e-mails received by Pakistani and Western news organisations from the previously unknown National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty showed Pearl in captivity and demanded better treatment for Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The first e-mail called Mr Pearl a CIA agent; a second claimed he was working for the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad. Pearl's family denied both allegations.

Saeed and his co-defendants denied involvement in the kidnapping and accused the government of fabricating the case to appease American anger. Saeed admitted a role the kidnapping during his initial court appearance Feb. 14 but later recanted.

Saeed was believed to have links with some of the country's most violent Islamic extremist groups. The trial began 22 April in Karachi but was moved to Hyderabad, about 110 miles away, after prosecutors said they were receiving death threats.

The prosecution relied heavily on technical evidence provided by the FBI, which traced the e-mails to co-defendant Naseem, who in turn identified Saeed and the others. Naseem said Saeed told him that he intended to grab someone who was "anti-Islam and a Jew," police reported.

Saeed and the others denied any involvement and claimed the government had coerced confessions and manufactured evidence to appease the Americans. The United States has asked for Saeed's extradition to face charges in the Pearl case and in the 1994 kidnapping in India of an American, who was freed unharmed.

In his first court appearance inn Ferbuary Saeed admitted a role in the Pearl kidnapping but later recanted. The statement was not made under oath and was inadmissible.