Pakistan’s Supreme Court adjourned on Thursday without deciding whether to free the man convicted and later acquitted of the 2002 murder of a American journalist Daniel Pearl.
The key suspect in Pearl’s slaying, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, remains in custody while his lawyer has petitioned the top court to free him in keeping with another court’s ruling last month that ordered his release. Pearl’s family and the Pakistani Government have appealed the acquittal to the Supreme Court, which resumed its hearing this week. A decision is expected before the end of the month.
Sheikh’s lawyer, Mehmood A Sheikh, has been trying to get his client, who has been on death row for 18 years, freed since his acquittal. The lawyer and Sheikh are not related.