SC to hear plea against SHC verdict in Daniel Pearl murder case.

A three-judge special bench of the Supreme Court (SC) led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmad will hear the petition of the parents of American journalist Daniel Pearl on June 1 against the Sindh High Court's (SHC) decision of suspending the sentence of convicts in their son's murder case.

The slain journalist's parents had approached the apex court against the high court's April 2 verdict commuting the death sentence Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh the man convicted of kidnapping and murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 to a seven-year sentence, and acquitted three others who had been awarded life imprisonment in the case.

Ruth Pearl and Judie Pearl filed a petition through renowned lawyer Faisal Siddiqi against the acquittal and release of the four accused.

'The decision by the Sindh High Court to free the men in the murder of Daniel Pearl is a complete miscarriage of justice. It is a defining case for the Pakistani state and its judicial system, involving freedom of the press, the sanctity of every life, freedom from terror and the manifestation of a welcoming and safe Pakistan to the world. Rarely has any court case embodied and risked such fundamental values,' said the lawyer.

The petition stated that the SHC 'failed to note that this was a brutal murder' and a result of international terrorism, and the principle of the standard of proof, as well as the benefit of the doubt in cases of international terrorism, has to be applied keeping in context that the nature and type of evidence available in such terrorism cases cannot be equated with cases involving non-terrorism crimes.

'Therefore, it is obvious and apparent that the impugned judgment is clearly erroneous because it is fundamentally based on a misinterpretation of law and misreading of the entire record of Special Case No.26 of 2002,' stated the petition, adding that the impugned judgment is liable to be set aside.

The petition further alleged that the SHC erred in holding that no evidence has been brought on record by the...