ATC allows dropping Pearl’s widow as witness
HYDERABAD- The Judge, Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas Division, Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, on Wednesday disposed of an application filed by the prosecution for constitution of a commission for recording evidence of complainant Marianne Pearl at London in the US journalist Daniel Pearl murder case.
The court, which resumed hearing of the case here at Central Prison, also allowed the prosecution to drop Marianne Pearl as prosecution witness on the basis of a statement filed by the counsel for the complainant in the court on Wednesday that his client will not be able to travel either to Pakistan or to London for an indefinite period.
The court also partly accepted the application of the defence counsel, pleading to stop trial proceedings until a decision of the Sindh High Court regarding provision of the videotape of the murder of Daniel Pearl to the defence counsel.
On Wednesday, the defence counsel also completed the cross-examination of Investigating Officer Rao Aslam while examination-in-chief of another Investigating Officer Hameedullah Memon is continuing and will be completed during Thursday’s hearing.
Advocate-General (AG), Sindh, Raja Qureshi, who is also the Chief Prosecutor, informed newsmen at a briefing outside the court that Marianne Pearl is not an eyewitness to the crime of kidnapping and murder, and as many as 23 prosecution witnesses have been examined to date.
The last prosecution witness was in the box on Wednesday and his examination-in-chief will be concluded on Thursday, he said. The cross-examination will commence on the next day of the judgment of the High Court, he said.
Replying to a question, Raja Qureshi said non-examination of Marianne Pearl will neither hurt or nor help the prosecution at this juncture and at this point of trial, primarily for the reason she was due to give evidence for two aspects, namely that she had got the First Information Report (FIR) recorded and secondly she had produced e-mails.
The AG Sindh added the FIR and e-mails have already been exhibited on judicial record. After cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, he said statement of accused persons will be recorded and later defence witnesses will be examined, if the defence wanted to produce them in the court.
Rai Basheer Ahmed, the defence counsel of co-accused Suleman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Shaikh Muhammad Adil informed the newsmen that cross-examination of Investigating Officer Rao Aslam has been completed while examination-in-chief of another Investigating Officer Hameedullah Memon is in progress.
He claimed that cross-examination of Rao Aslam went in favour of the defence. He said the court has partly accepted the application of the defence counsel to stop the trial proceedings till the announcement of the judgment of the Sindh High Court.
Commenting on the dropping of complainant Marianne Pearl by the prosecution, Rai Basheer said it has ended the foundation of FIR of the case. Abdul Waheed Katpar, the defence counsel for accused Omar Shaikh, also attended the court, among others. The judge adjourned the case for Thursday.
Source: The News
Date:6/6/2002
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