Parents of slain journalist Daniel Pearl challenge Pakistan court freeing of son's convicted killers

The parents of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl are reportedly trying to get the Pakistani Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that freed the Islamic militant and his three accomplices who were imprisoned for their son’s death.

Pearl was kidnapped in January 2002 while investigating Islamist militants in Pakistan and beheaded weeks later.

The petition is being filed on behalf of the Pearls by lawyer Faisal Siddiq, according to Reuters.

Islamist militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearl’s murder. His sentence was commuted last month. The three aides, who were sentenced to life in prison, were acquitted for lack of evidence by a high court in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

However, Pakistani authorities have ordered the four to be kept in detention for three months.

“We’re standing up for justice, not only for our son, but for all our dear friends in Pakistan so they can live in a society free of violence and terrorism,” Pearl’s father said in a video message on Twitter.

“A bare perusal of the entire record would reveal that there was a plethora of incriminating evidence, both forensic as well as oral, which proved that murder was committed and that all the accused persons aided and abetted the murder,” the appeal petition reportedly states.