PAKISTAN's Supreme Court ordered the release from prison on Tuesday(2) of a British-born militant who had been convicted in the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl by al Qaeda and Pakistani Islamist militants in 2002.
In a decision that is expected to draw criticism from the US, the court recommended that Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh be transferred to a government safe house as a stepping stone to his full release after spending 18 years on death row.
"He should be moved to a comfortable residential environment, something like a rest house where he can live a normal life," said Justice Omar Ata Bandyal.
Bandyal headed a panel of three judges that reviewed the case, following a petition from the government after the court upheld last Thursday a lower court's decision to acquit Sheikh and three accomplices of all charges except abduction.
The court said Sheikh should be kept at a secure location under a "supervision and some surveillance," his lawyer Rauf Ahmad Sheikh told reporters.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken "reinforced" Washington's concern over the case in a telephone call on Friday(29) with Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Sheikh's family had also petitioned for the Supreme Court to reverse the acquittal so that "Sheikh and co-conspirators are brought to justice for the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl," Faisal Siddiqi, a lawyer for the family, said.
On assignment for the Wall Street Journal in the months after al Qaeda 9/11 attacks on the US, Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi and later beheaded. The militants videoed his execution.
Al Qaeda's number three leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed later confessed to killing Pearl, while Sheikh, a former student at the London School of Economics, played key role in luring the journalist into a trap with the help of other Pakistani militants.
Captured in Pakistan in 2003, Mohammed is being held at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, on the island of Cuba, where he is a awaiting trial on multiple counts, and could face the death penalty.
Sheikh's fortunes changed last year, when a high court decided only the kidnapping conviction should stand, commuting his death sentence to seven years in jail, which he had already served.
Sheikh's father, Ahmad Saeed Sheikh, attended Tuesday's hearing.
"It is not a complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom," he told Reuters Television.
The judge said family members should be allowed to visit Sheikh once he was moved from prison.
The terms of Sheikh's release will become clearer once a written order is made public.
"Even if court orders for release, the government has prepared other cases to charge him under a terrorism act and for treason," said Hassan Abbas, a Washington based international security professor. "The bigger challenge for Islamabad will be pressure from the US"
Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police may probe anti-Israel comments at Glastonbury
BRITISH police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation after performers at Glastonbury Festival made anti-Israel comments during their shows.
"We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon," Avon and Somerset Police, in western England, said on X late on Saturday (28).
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan made anti-Israeli chants in separate shows on the West Holts stage on Saturday. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted "Death, death, to the IDF" in a reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation," the police statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival".
Prime minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury.
The band's frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November. He has denied the charge.
A British government minister said it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made at Glastonbury, and that the festival's organisers and the BBC broadcaster - which is showing the event - had questions to answer.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"I'd also say to the Israeli Embassy, get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank," Streeting told Sky News.
"I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said.
(Reuters)