[size=4]Pearl Case Suspect Issues Warning[/size=4]
KARACHI, Pakistan- The defiant, alleged mastermind of the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl warned Tuesday that Americans will suffer if he is sent to the United States, shouting to bystanders after a court appearance that [b]"America will be finished soon."[/b]
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and co-defendant Sheikh Mohammed Adeel appeared Tuesday before a judge, who gave the government another 10 days to continue its investigation before setting a trial date.
Saeed's lawyer, Khwaja Naveed, claimed police have fabricated evidence and asked the court to set a date for the trial or release his client.
The United States also has expressed interest in trying the British-born Islamic militant, but Pakistan says he must stand trial here first.
Pearl, the Journal's South Asia correspondent, was kidnapped in Karachi on Jan. 23 while researching links between Pakistani extremists and Richard C. Reid, arrested in December with explosives in his shoe on the flight between Paris and Miami.
Last month, a videotape received by the U.S. Consulate in Karachi confirmed Pearl was dead. His body has not been found and some suspects remain at large.
Saeed and Adeel, their faces covered by scarves, arrived in court in an armored personnel carrier accompanied by nine police vehicles for the closed-door hearing.
[b]According to chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi, [u]Saeed told Judge Shabbir Ahmed that if he were sent to the United States, he would return to Pakistan as he did from India[/u] - a reference to his release by Indian authorities in December 1999 in exchange for passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines jet hijacked to Afghanistan.
[b]Saeed also warned that if he were killed in a "fake encounter at the behest of America," Americans would "suffer the consequences," Quereshi said.[/b]
As police bundled him into the armored vehicle for the trip back to jail, Saeed shouted [b]"Sell your dollars because America will be finished soon!"[/b]
The prosecution asked the court for more time to find Pearl's body, retrieve the murder weapon, complete interrogation and receive an FBI report on the grisly videotape.
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Saeed was arrested before the videotape was received. At his first hearing, he admitted to his role in the kidnapping but later recanted. The statement is inadmissible because it was not made under oath.
The three other suspects were arrested Jan. 30 after the FBI and police traced the e-mails to a laptop belonging to one of them, Fahad Naseem. Naseem confessed and said Saeed told him three days before the kidnapping that he planned to abduct someone who is "anti-Islam and a Jew."
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Much of the case appears to hang on the testimony of Naseem and a taxi driver, Nasir Abbas, who told police he saw Pearl shake hands with Saeed and get into a car in front of a Karachi restaurant on the night he disappeared.
U.S. officials confirm they would like to prosecute Saeed, but there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Saeed has not been indicted for the Pearl kidnap-slaying in the United States.
Officials of the two governments are studying ways he could be handed over eventually in accordance with the laws.
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See article at:[url]http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2002/mar/12/031200745.html[/url]
Eric The(Yes,BringHisAssHere!)Hun[>]:)]