The US has said it is ready to take custody of British-born al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, accused of kidnapping and murdering American journalist Daniel Pearl, asserting that Washington will not allow him to evade justice.

Acting US Attorney General Jeffrey A Rosen’s remarks comes days after a Pakistani court ordered release of Sheikh and his three aides, convicted and later acquitted in the kidnapping and murder case of Pearl.

“We cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder,” Rosen said on Tuesday.

Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the links between the country’s powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.

“We understand that Pakistani authorities are taking steps to ensure that Omar Sheikh remains in custody while the Supreme Court appeal seeking to reinstate his conviction continues,” Rosen said in a statement released by the US State Department.

“The separate judicial rulings reversing his conviction and ordering his release are an affront to terrorism victims everywhere,” he said.

“We remain grateful for the Pakistani Government’s actions to appeal such rulings to ensure that he and his co-defendants are held accountable. If, however, those efforts do not succeed, the United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here,” he said.

In a surprise move, a two-judge bench of the Sindh High Court last week directed security agencies not to keep Sheikh and other accused under “any sort of detention” and declared all notifications of the Sindh government related to their detention “null and void”. The court observed that the four men’s detention was “illegal”.

Days later the Sindh province government said it has decided not to release Sheikh and his three aides in view of a Supreme Court’s September 28 order.

A three-judge apex court bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam, which is hearing the appeal by the Sindh government and the family of the slain journalist against the acquittal of Sheikh by the Sindh High Court in April, on September 28 noted that till the next date of hearing, the accused shall not be released.