Prosecutor in Daniel Pearl Case Resigns
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KARACHI, Pakistan — Prosecutor Raja Qureshi, who secured the convictions of four men in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, has submitted a letter of resignation, Pakistan’s government said Saturday.
Qureshi did not say why he wanted to step down, Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said, but his assistants said on condition of anonymity that Qureshi had received threatening letters and phone calls.
Qureshi told reporters Friday that he would explain his reasons for leaving later.
He successfully prosecuted four Islamic militants who were convicted in July of kidnapping and killing Pearl, the Journal’s South Asia bureau chief.
Pearl disappeared in Karachi while working on a story in January about Muslim militants. His dismembered body was found in May outside Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism.
The court sentenced one of the four men -- British-born militant Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh -- to be hanged for his role in Pearl’s abduction and death. The other three were sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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