Daniel Pearl.

[BlackLabel]

Back in 2002 WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl was looking into Jihadi terrorism when he was kidnapped in Pakistan and beheaded on video. It was probably the first case of its kind where a beheading was used in a propaganda video and that too in the internet era. More recently ISIS and others have used this tactic regularly however in the early 00s it was a genuine shock when it happened. This case was of particular interest to us Brits as the so called mastermind of this kidnapping and murder was British born Omar Sheikh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Omar_Saeed_She...

This case has made the news again now because Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the release of four men, including Sheikh, accused of the murder.


“ Pakistan’s supreme court has ordered the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born Islamist militant who had been sentenced to death for the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Pearl was kidnapped in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in January 2002 during an investigation into al-Qaida and beheaded by Islamic militants, with a video of the killing posted online.

Sheikh was convicted of masterminding Pearl’s murder and given the death penalty in 2002. However, Sheikh always denied his role, and questions remained over whether he had actually carried out the killing, or just been a secondary figure involved in the kidnapping. A recently revealed letter showed Sheikh seeming to admit a “relatively minor” role in Pearl’s murder for the first time, although his lawyer says this was written under duress.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/28/da...

[rodericb]

Sounds fishy. Plus the link to the Guardian article no longer works.....

[BlackLabel]

Not sure why the Guardian changed their link.

This summary from the BBC is a better read.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55850448