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| India-Pakistan |
| Pearl killers say they were framed, tortured... |
| 2002-06-22 |
| Two co-defendants in the kidnap-murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl claimed Saturday they were framed by the FBI and tortured by Pakistani police into making confessions. "All the witnesses in this case are either policemen or their agents, and the entire case is a fabrication of the police ... working under FBI instructions," said Salman Saqil, one of four defendants in the case. "We know that justice will not be done to us." The claims by Saqil and co-defendant Fahad Naseem came a day after chief defendant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh accused Pakistani authorities of fabricating the case against him. That's right. The Merkins put those e-mails on his computer... Reporters are banned from attending the trial, which started April 22, but defense and prosecution teams regularly brief them on developments. Saqib and Naseem, speaking through defense attorney Rai Bashir, said their February confessions were made under torture, and promised evidence to prove their innocence. The trial was adjourned until Thursday, when the defense team will continue presenting evidence. The chief prosecutor is then to make a closing argument. The judge's delivery of a verdict could take weeks. I really like the trapeze artists in this trial, but the clowns are good, too... Another defendant, former policeman Sheikh Muhammad Adeel, also gave a brief statement to the court Saturday, claiming he was framed by senior police officers because he was trying to report high-level police corruption. Boy, ain't that a new story...! U.S. investigators were called in to help Pakistan after Pearl disappeared on Jan. 23. Shortly afterward, e-mails with photos of the journalist were sent to foreign and local news publications. They were signed by a previously unknown group demanding better treatment for the suspected Taliban and al-Qaida men being held in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The FBI traced the e-mails to Naseem, who then identified Saeed as the mastermind, police said. Saqib and Adeel were accused as accomplices. Saeed told the court Friday that police manipulated evidence and illegally detained him. All four defendants refused to take an oath for their statements, saying they had no respect for the courts modeled on the British judicial system. Since the statement was not made under oath, prosecutors were unable to cross-examine the defendants. Besides, which, there was always that little fear that God would strike them dead on the spot. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |