|
U.S. Wants Pearl Kidnapper Extradited
 |
| Pearl’s wife, Mariane, wants revenge for her slain man
|
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States Ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, pressed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Tuesday to extradite Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the confessed mastermind behind the abduction of American journalist Daniel Pearl, as Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai arrived in India to hold talks on his ravaged country's reconstruction.
Karzai arrived for two days of talks after a report said former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef - whose release from U.S. custody was a demand of Pearl's abductors - would soon be freed.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press did not name sources but said U.S. authorities had decided to release the diplomat. He was reportedly taken aboard the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, after extensive interrogation.
The United States had hoped Zaeef would be able to help it find elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and September 11 alleged suspect Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani police, meanwhile, continued their search for the remains of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl as the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan spoke with Musharraf about extraditing Saeed Sheikh, who told a court February 14 that he had arranged the journalist's kidnapping.
Saeed Sheikh was remanded Monday to two more weeks of police custody. He appeared again in court Tuesday where a witness identified him and said he had set up a meeting between Saeed Sheikh and Pearl, who disappeared working on a story January 23.
Saeed was not able to see the witness, whose identify has not been revealed.
Saeed was already in police custody by the time U.S. and Pakistani authorities revealed the contents of a videotape Friday that confirmed Pearl's death at the hands of the kidnappers, news agencies reported.
The United States has said it is interested in gaining custody of Saeed Sheikh, also wanted over the 1994 kidnapping of an American along with three Britons. News agencies reported the White House has made clear to Pakistan that it wants to try Saeed.
"The United States would very much like to get our hands on Omar Sheikh and the others who are responsible," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington.
Saeed is among about a dozen suspects in Pearl’s abduction and murder. Pearl’s body has yet to be found. And Pakistani authorities say they are still searching for four suspects they believe were key figures in the crime, including Amjad Faruqi, the main target of a nationwide police manhunt whom police believe carried out the kidnapping.
Saeed confessed to the kidnapping in a Feb. 14 court hearing and said that as far as he knew, Pearl was dead. Court officials say that would not be enough to convict because it was not made under oath.
Saeed, 28, a first-generation Briton, was arrested in India in 1994 in connection with the kidnapping of four Western backpackers, but was freed as part of a prisoner-hostage swap after gunmen hijacked an Indian Airlines jet to Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1999.
U.S. and Pakistani officials would not say how Musharraf responded when Ambassador Chamberlin raised Omar's potential extradition, but Chamberlin and Musharraf agreed it was necessary to keep Saeed in Pakistan for the time being to facilitate efforts to recover Pearl's body and the weapons used to kill him, a senior Pakistani Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, news agencies reported.
The two countries do not have an extradition treaty, but Pakistan in the past extradited two suspects wanted in 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters near Washington.
Washington had requested Saeed’s extradition before Pearl’s kidnapping in connection with the 1994 kidnappings. A U.S. federal grand jury secretly indicted him on kidnapping charges that year.
Meanwhile, Pearl's widow, Mariane, seven months pregnant with the couple's first child, told CNN Tuesday she would tell her unborn son his father died a hero.
A distraught Ms. Pearl warned of "a vast and international network of terrorists," not limited to Pakistan that was working on a global scale, saying that, "Wherever there is misery they will find people."
In the CNN interview, she praised Pakistanis who have supported her ordeal, saying that her "feeling and affection" for Pakistan "have not changed because of what happened.
"They have shared my sorrow," she said to CNN, adding that many Pakistanis feel "bad, ashamed, sad" about what happened. 
|
