Karachi prison moves men acquitted of Pearl murder

A Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl and three others detained Karachi's Central Prison are to be shifted to newly constructed rooms within the boundary of the prison, authorities said on Saturday.

On Tuesday Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, to be moved to a so-called government "safe house."

However, authorities said Saturday Sheikh and the three others, who had been sentenced to life in prison for their part in Pearl's kidnapping and death, would be moved to new rooms where they will be able to have family members visit but these would not be outside the prison complex.

The three — Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib — were alleged to have all played lesser roles in the incident.

The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal in the Wall Street Journal reporter's death, triggering outrage by Pearl's family and the U.S. administration.

In a final effort to overturn the acquittal, Pakistan's government, as well as the Pearl family, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl's murder.

The family's lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, however, said such a review had a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Sheikh's acquittal sit on the review panel.

The order sending Sheikh to a safe house would seem to be a concession to the federal government, as well as the government of southern Sindh province where Karachi is the capital.

The Sindh government has refused successive orders to release Sheikh, even courting contempt charges from lower courts.