Pakistani suspect charged in Pearl killing

WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- A federal grand jury Thursday indicted the alleged ringleader of the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, a British national who is now being held in Pakistan, where the kidnapping occurred, was charged in the United States with conspiracy to take a hostage resulting in death.

In announcing the indictment Thursday at the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Sheikh could face the death penalty if convicted in the United States.

Ashcroft said he met earlier Thursday with Pearl's pregnant widow, Mariane, and told her: "The United States has not forsaken your husband, nor the values he held. The story he tried to tell will be told, and justice will be done."

Pakistani prosecutors are trying to build their own case against Shaikh, and have been given more time to do so by a Pakistani magistrate.

Asked whether the United States had assurances that Shaikh would be turned over to U.S. custody if the Pakistani prosecution is unsuccessful, Ashcroft said, "We expect them to be cooperative."

Thursday's indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Trenton, N.J., not far from the Journal's headquarters in South Brunswick.

It accuses Sheikh and unnamed other conspirators of luring Pearl to a meeting in Karachi "under the false pretense that he was to meet with a prominent Muslim cleric."

"Daniel Pearl wanted to interview this individual in connection with a news story he planned to write," the indictment said.

Instead of getting an interview, Pearl was instead abducted and held captive for a number of days. His alleged captors sent e-mail messages demanding, among other things, the release of Pakistani prisoners who had fought against U.S. forces in Afghanistan and were being held at the American stockade in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

They also e-mailed digital photos of a captive Pearl with a pistol pressed to his head.

The conspirators finally "killed and decapitated Daniel Pearl, which they videotaped in part," the indictment said.

Also Thursday, the Justice Department released a previously sealed indictment of Shaikh that had been returned by a grand jury in Washington last November.

The Washington indictment charges Shaikh in the 1994 kidnapping of Bela T. Nuss, an American tourist in India, in an attempt to compel Indian authorities to release other terrorist suspects.

Shaikh was eventually captured by Indian authorities, but was later released as part of a deal to free an airliner hijacked by his confederates.

At Thursday's news conference, Ashcroft said Shaikh could face life in prison if convicted of the 1994 charges.

Among the officials appearing with Ashcroft for the announcement of the indictments was FBI Executive Assistant Director Dale Watson, who is in charge of the bureau's counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence efforts.

"The FBI worked very hard in this matter" to build the case against Sheikh in the Pearl killing, the attorney general said. "The United States has (also) worked with Pakistan and other authorities to build this case."