Defence gets Pearl’s murder video film
HYDERABAD- The Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) Judge, Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, provided the certified copy of a 3.36-minutes video cassette to the defence in Daniel Pearl murder case here on Friday.
The cassette contained scenes of the gruesome murder of the US journalist. A junior defence lawyer, Mahar Muhammad Waris Bharwana, received the cassette from the court.
The defence counsels will be cross-examining the last witness of the case, Hameedullah Memon, an investigation officer named in the First Information Report (FIR) lodged by Mariane Pearl through a letter to the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Artillery Maidan police station.
The Chief Prosecutor, Raja Qureshi, had brought the videocassette on the court’s record after it was presented by an FBI agent, John Moligan, who had declined to disclose the source, which provided him the cassette.
The defence lawyers, Abdul Wahid Katper and Rai Basheer Ahmed, had disputed the veracity of the cassette as well as the attachments of the e-mail allegedly sent by the accused. They maintained that imitating such video films through advance technology was possible. They had sought a copy of the video for a verification by some experts before cross-examining the witness.
Raja Qureshi, who is also the Advocate General, Sindh, had strongly opposed the defence plea.
The ATC, on May 28, had allowed the defence application but simultaneously stayed the operation of the impugned order for 72-hours, which gave an opportunity to the chief prosecutor to move the Sindh High Court (SHC) through a criminal revision application.
Raja Qureshi prayed to the SHC that the May 28 order of the ATC be set aside.
A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Karachi, rejected the prosecution’s application and ordered the release of a copy of the videocassette to the defence.
The defence lawyers had, however, been ordered not to provide the video film to any TV channel and not to display/exhibit it at any public place.
The defence counsels had also reserved the cross-examination of Hameedullah Memon after the SHC reserved the order on the prosecution’s criminal revision plea.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/16/2002
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