U.S. Grand Jury Indicts Pearl Kidnapping Suspect

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted an Islamic militant accused of masterminding the kidnapping and slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, escalating the United States’ push to have Pearl’s alleged killers tried in this country.

Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is being held by authorities in Pakistan, was charged with hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking. Because the alleged crimes ended in Pearl’s death, those two counts could carry the death penalty.

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Sheikh “led a ring of co-conspirators who carefully and methodically set a death trap for Daniel Pearl, lured him into it with lies and savagely ended his life.”

Pearl was kidnapped Jan. 23 in the Arabian Sea port of Karachi and killed a short time later by captors who recorded his decapitation on videotape. The film was delivered to U.S. authorities in Pakistan last month.

Ashcroft said the United States continues to investigate Sheikh’s alleged accomplices, and he indicated that additional charges could be filed against the British-born suspect.

The Justice Department on Thursday also unsealed an earlier indictment of Sheikh that charges him with the kidnapping of an American tourist, Bela J. Nuss, in India in 1994. Nuss was released after 11 days. If convicted on that count, Sheikh could face life in prison.

The indictments come amid delicate negotiations between Pakistan and the United States over custody of Sheikh.

Ashcroft said the indictment sends a clear signal that the United States expects to conduct its own trial of Sheikh. But he indicated that the U.S. has yet to secure an agreement from Pakistan.

“We are signaling our clear interest in trying him on these charges,” Ashcroft said. “We are collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interests, and we expect them to be cooperative.”

But Pakistani authorities said Tuesday that Sheikh will be tried there before any hand-over to U.S. authorities is considered. Prosecutors in Karachi have yet to file charges, and earlier this week asked for more time to assemble their case.

Pakistan faces pressure from nationalist and extremist elements within the country not to comply with the U.S. request. Pakistani officials have also acknowledged concern that Sheikh might try to sour U.S.-Pakistani relations by revealing information about militant groups’ alleged ties to Pakistan’s intelligence service.

In a courtroom outburst Tuesday, Sheikh threatened retaliation against American targets if he was turned over or if he died in captivity, saying America “would suffer the consequences.”

Ashcroft said the Justice Department wanted to have indictments of Sheikh in place so that if he was released or escaped, U.S. authorities would have legal standing to apprehend him. Ashcroft noted that Sheikh, who spent five years in an Indian prison, was freed in 1999 after colleagues hijacked an Indian jet and demanded his release.

“We didn’t have charges pending in that setting,” Ashcroft said, adding that if Sheikh was freed under any circumstances now, “we would be in a position to take him.”

The two indictments contained some of the most detailed information to date on Sheikh, who studied at the London School of Economics before becoming linked with militant organizations, including the Harkat Ansar, an armed Pakistani group seeking India’s withdrawal from the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

According to Thursday’s indictment, Sheikh trained in military camps in Afghanistan and fought with Taliban and Al Qaeda forces last fall before escaping to Pakistan. Ashcroft said Sheikh then began pursuing a plan “to take hostage an acclaimed journalist from an influential U.S. newspaper in order to change U.S. policy in the war against terror.”

Sheikh used a false identity--Chaudrey Bashir--to correspond with Pearl by e-mail and lure him to the meeting in Karachi where he was abducted, according to the indictment.

Pearl was pursuing a story about possible links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, who is charged with attempting to blow up a Miami-bound plane in December by igniting explosives in his shoes.

Sheikh, according to the indictment, offered to introduce Pearl to a prominent Muslim cleric. Last week, a Karachi taxi driver reportedly testified that he drove Pearl to that meeting, and witnessed Sheikh shake Pearl’s hand and usher the reporter into a white car.

A few days later, on Jan. 26, a group identifying itself as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty e-mailed to several U.S. newspapers pictures of a shackled Pearl with a gun to his head. The group made various demands, including the release of Pakistani prisoners in U.S. custody. Four days later, a second e-mail message arrived warning that Pearl would be executed unless the demands were met.

Ashcroft said Thursday that before that second e-mail was sent, the kidnappers “had already brutally killed Daniel Pearl and videotaped the mutilation of his body.”

There were reports Thursday that a new suspect was in custody in Pakistan who claimed responsibility for killing Pearl aboard a boat in the Arabian Sea. Justice Department officials declined to comment on the report.

A Pakistani judge this week agreed to give prosecutors until March 22 to continue their investigation of Pearl’s slaying. Authorities continue to search for Pearl’s body and the weapon used to kill him.

Pearl’s French-born wife, Mariane, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, met Thursday with President Bush, Ashcroft and other officials. A spokesman for the Pearl family declined to comment on the meetings.

Pearl had worked abroad since the mid-1990s for the Wall Street Journal. The indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury in New Jersey, a location chosen because it is where the Journal has been based since its New York offices were damaged extensively in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.