Karachi (Staff Report/Agencies): The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday overturned the conviction of prime accused Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
A two-member bench comprising justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi announced a verdict on appeals filed by Sheikh, a British national, and co-accused against the conviction in 2002.
Saeed has already spent 18 years in prison on death row and the seven-year sentence was expected to be counted as time served.
The court also acquitted three others accused in the case: Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil, and Salman Saqib, who were earlier sentenced to life in prison.
The SHC further dismissed an appeal of the state seeking enhancement of life term of three co-accused.
Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about religious extremists in Karachi.