Pakistan has overturned the death sentence of the man convicted of killing US journalist Daniel Pearl, defence lawyers have told reporters.<\/p>\n
British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who has been in prison since 2002, has had his sentence reduced to seven years, said lawyer Khawaja Naveed.<\/p>\n
Three other men given life sentences over the killing have been acquitted by the Sindh High Court and released.<\/p>\n
Pearl, who worked for the Wall Street Journal, went missing in January 2002.<\/p>\n
He had been researching Islamist militant activity in Karachi in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.<\/p>\n
A month later, authorities said he had been killed after receiving video footage of his beheading.<\/p>\n
Sheikh was convicted shortly afterwards by an anti-terrorism court, but there have long been questions over the case.<\/p>\n
A group of US journalists, including former colleagues of Pearl, said in 2011<\/a>\u00a0that they believed Sheikh had not carried out the beheading.<\/p>\n The Pearl Project alleged the beheading was carried out by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is being held in Guantanamo Bay, accused of being behind the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n Mr Naveed told Reuters on Thursday that the murder charges had not been proven, so his client’s sentence had been reduced to seven years for the kidnapping.<\/p>\n “Omar has already served 18 years, so his release orders will be issued sometime today. He will be out in a few days,” he said.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"