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Omar’s Lawyer Rejects U.S. Indictment For Kidnapping
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Sheik
Omar escorted by Pakistani police
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WASHINGTON, March 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born Muslim blamed for the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was indicted Thursday by the United States, but “Sheikh Omar’s” lawyer on Friday rejected the indictment as “absurd,” news agencies reported.
"It will be up to the court to make a decision, but the indictment in the United States looks absurd to me," Saiful Malook told Agence France-Presse (AFP) from the eastern city of Lahore.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft publicly announced the indictment, which demanded Pakistan turn him over to U.S. authorities for judgment, stressing the need for Pakistan to cooperate with the eventual extradition of Sheikh Omar, who holds both British and Pakistani passports.
"We are collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interest, and we expect them to be cooperative," Ashcroft told reporters in announcing the charges of "kidnapping and murder" for which the 29-year-old Omar could receive the death penalty.
"Obviously, they have him in custody now, and we don't. And we are signaling our clear interest in trying him on these charges and bringing him to justice in the United States," not only for Pearl's kidnapping but also the 1994 kidnapping of a U.S. citizen in India, Ashcroft said.
Bela Jay Nuss was kidnapped at gunpoint in India in 1994, but was freed without incident. According to a report Friday in the New York Times, Omar was “secretly indicted” by a grand jury in Washington for his role in the kidnapping. U.S. officials had pressed Pakistan to arrest Omar at least twice before Pearl was kidnapped, the report said.
But Malook said that an indictment for the 1994 incident would go against international law.
"If he is indicted for abducting a U.S. citizen in India, this is a violation of international law, double jeopardy. The offence was committed in India and he was tried there for six years," Malook said.
"Nothing was proved against him in the shape of legal evidence. No-one can be tried twice for the same offense."
Omar was held for around five years in an Indian prison over the 1994 kidnapping but was never charged, and in 1999 he was released in exchange for hostages taken in the hijacking of an Indian Airline plane.
Khwaja Naveed, the lawyer for Omar's three co-accused - who allegedly sent e-mails showing Pearl in captivity, said Washington had no jurisdiction and insisted any trial must take place in Pakistan and not in the United States.
"It's surprising that he has been indicted in the Pearl case because the U.S. courts have no territorial jurisdiction here, and the incident took place in Pakistan," Naveed told AFP.
"The main accused and the co-accused are Pakistanis, the incident occurred in Pakistan, the body and the weapons will be recovered in Pakistan, so it's a case for Pakistan to try."
However, a Pakistani court ruled on March 5 that no laws would be violated if Omar is extradited to the United States. The court threw out a petition filed by his wife against a U.S. extradition request.
A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign office said the investigation had to be completed before Islamabad considered whether to try Omar in Pakistan or hand him over to U.S. authorities.
"We have to first complete the investigations and in the light of that investigation and whatever evidence is collected we will decide," spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said."The government is vigorously pursuing the investigation... and only after completing our investigation will we be able to take a decision what next steps to be taken."
Ashcroft told reporters the United States was "collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interest and we expect them to be cooperative.
"We are signaling our clear interest in trying him on these charges and bringing him to justice in the United States."
Britain has said it would not object to his extradition. Islamabad does not have a formal extradition treaty with Washington, but both sides say an agreement reached when Pakistan was part of the British Empire is still in force.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that U.S. and Pakistani officials had already held talks on their "common goal" of bringing Omar to justice.
"We've been in discussions with the Pakistani government about how to handle the trials, sequence the trials, whatever else needs to be done after that should there be conviction and sentencing," he said.
Ashcroft said the grand jury charged that in early 2002, Omar "led a ring of co-conspirators who carefully and methodically set a death trap for Daniel Pearl, lured him into it with lies, and savagely ended his life... to change U.S. policies in the war against terrorism, and to achieve other goals."
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agents have assisted in the Pakistani investigation since Pearl, 37, disappeared from Karachi January 23 after he told his pregnant wife he was going to interview an Islamic leader. In a February 14 court appearance, Omar claimed he masterminded the abduction, and authorities found a video on February 21 that depicted the grisly murder.
Musharraf has said no decision has been made on whether to grant a U.S. extradition request for Omar, educated in London and Lahore and born to a family with close ties to revolutionary Islamic causes.
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