Militant 'confesses' to Daniel Pearl emails
A 21-year-old Islamic militant has confessed in court to sending emails announcing the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Fahad Naseem told the judge in a closed-door deposition that he sent the emails on orders from British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
Sheikh told him of plans to abduct someone who is "anti-Islam and a Jew," according to defence attorney Khawaja Naveed Ahmed.
Naseem was among three people arrested for sending the emails announcing Pearl's abduction on January 23, which included photos of him in captivity.
Naseem was brought to court with his head covered by a hood and surrounded by three dozen heavily-armed policemen.
Several vehicles mounted with machine guns were parked outside the court building and armed police patrolled from rooftops. Naseem gave his statement to the judge in a closed-door session in which even his lawyer was excluded.
The lawyer told reporters what his client had said based on the official transcript, which was not made available to reporters. Naseem has been detained in custody. Officials cleared out the entire floor where the one-and-a-half hour deposition hearing took place.
According to the lawyer, Naseem told the judge that on January 21, two days before Mr Pearl disappeared, he was taken to a house he had never visited before by his cousin Salman Saqib, a co-defendant in the case.
At the house, Naseem said Saeed gave him money to buy a camera and that he was later given a scanner to send emails. According to the lawyer, Naseem said Saeed told him there were plans to kidnap someone who is "anti-Islam and a Jew."
Mr Pearl, the Journal's South Asian bureau chief, was abducted on his way to a meeting in Karachi with Islamic extremists.
