HYDERABAD, Pakistan, July 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Pakistani court on Monday, July 15, 2002, sentenced British-born Sheikh Omar to death for abducting and murdering U.S. Wall-Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, news agencies reported.

"The judge has convicted Sheikh Omar of murder, conspiracy and abduction charges," chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi said on state television, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Omar's accomplices Salman Saquib, Fahad Nasim and Sheikh Adil were sentenced to life terms in jail.

"The three other accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment," Qureshi said, adding he would appeal for review of the accomplices' sentences.

"I'm satisfied with the conviction given to the prime suspect, but we'll appeal for enhancement of the conviction given to the other three," he told reporters outside the court.

The defense team, for its part, immediately announced it would appeal.

"We will go to the Sindh High Court tomorrow [Tuesday] in regular appeal and if we cannot get justice from there too, we will go to the Supreme Court," AFP quoted defense counsel Rai Bashir as telling reporters.

Bashir accused the court of buckling to government pressure to appease the United States, with whom Pakistan allied itself in the so-called war on terror.

"President [Pervez] Musharraf had already announced that he wanted the death penalty for Omar," said Bashir.

"In view of such a statement by the president, who is also the sole authority in appointing the judges, how could we expect justice? Pakistan wants to please America."

Omar's father Sheikh Ahmed Saeed also insisted on his son's innocence.

"My son was innocent before the trial even started, but the president of Pakistan awarded the death sentence to him and through the court today the same sentence was announced," he said on emerging from the court.

"We will definitely go into appeal. I am pretty sure that justice will be done. Life and death is in the hands of God."

Saaed said Omar reacted calmly to the death sentence.

"I met my son and he was relaxed and composed and said 'Papa don't worry'."

All four men were fined 500,000 rupees (8,330 dollars) which they were ordered to pay to Pearl's widow Mariane.

Elite force commandos, snipers and paramilitary troops were on high alert in the southern Pakistani city where the long-awaited verdict in the three-month Daniel Pearl murder trial was expected.

Anti-terrorism court judge Ashraf Ali Shah said earlier Monday that he would deliver the verdict inside a high-security prison in Hyderabad, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) north-east of Karachi, the port city where the correspondent was abducted January 23.

Defense and prosecution lawyers entered the makeshift court at around 10:00 am (0400 GMT). Court officials said the defendants were brought inside the court and sat in the dock.

Qureshi and police investigators engaged on the case flew by helicopter to Hyderabad from Karachi.

Jitters over a possible backlash to a guilty verdict or a death sentence prompted an unprecedented security operation in both Hyderabad and Karachi.

Armored personnel carriers and scores of heavily armed police were swarming around the colonial-era prison early Monday, shooing away spectators and only allowing dozens of foreign and local journalists to stand out the front.

Snipers were positioned on the roof of the hotel opposite the prison, while down below paramilitary mobile units patrolled the streets. The road in front was blocked by police barricades for two kilometers, AFP reported.

Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for educated Omar, the alleged mastermind of Pearl's abduction, as well as the other three accomplices.
All four were charged with kidnap, murder and terrorist activities, each of which carry the death sentence. They have all protested their innocence.

Earlier Monday, Bashir said all four defendants would be let off so long as there was no "government pressure."

"The trial was fair and if there is no government influence, all the accused should be acquitted," Bashir told reporters on arrival at the court. "But if the government used its influence, the decision can be different," he added.

Sheikh Adil's brother, Sheikh Aslam, arrived just ahead of the lawyers but was visibly angry when barred from entering the court.

He said only government pressure would produce a guilty verdict.

"If they give judgment on merit, all shall be acquitted," Aslam told reporters, but added he was doubtful that it would be decided on merit.

The trial was moved from Karachi to Hyderabad prison April 30, eight days after it had begun, after prosecutors cited security fears.

Officials said the trial would only take seven days, but it has dragged on for three months. Monday marked 13 weeks since it began.

Investigators said the absence of a confirmed body was likely to rule out a murder conviction, but many, including top-level officials in Islamabad, expected a kidnapping conviction at least for Omar.

He is said to have allegedly told a different court in February that he masterminded the abduction, and has since denied making any such statement.

The prosecution based its case on witness accounts of Omar meeting Pearl the day he disappeared, and FBI expert assessments of e-mails allegedly sent by Omar's co-defendants and of a grisly video of the decapitation of an already stabbed Pearl.

Missing from the prosecution's case was the body. Remains said to be Pearl's were dug up from a grave in Karachi in May, but two months later the results of DNA tests in the United States are yet to be officially announced.

Defense lawyers dismissed prosecution evidence as fabricated and their witnesses as police stooges, insisting Omar was nowhere near Karachi on January 23. Omar challenged the authenticity of the video, delivered February 21 to the U.S. consulate in Karachi.