Lack of evidence mars Pearl murder probe
KARACHI- With only 10 days left in trial of four accused in the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case, police investigators lack the basic evidence against the accused and are no where near solving the murder mystery.
This was revealed in interviews with several police investigators and officials familiar with the investigation of the case. After being surprisingly allowed by a senior police investigator to speak to his father from an official phone last week, Omar Sheikh not only refused to say a word further about his knowledge of the case, but also not taken any food since Saturday demanding that he be allowed a meeting with his father, senior police sources said.
“Omar’s father was most angry with his statement in the court and he specifically urged him not to speak any further,” said an official with a knowledge about Omar’s telephonic communication with his father. “His father’s words have practically sealed Omar’s lips,” he said
In a major departure from his earlier statement in a court Omar told a High Court judge last week that the police were trying to secure a fake confessional statement from him by forcing him to sign blank papers.
“There still are plenty of loose ends in the case,” conceded a senior police investigator. “Frankly speaking we don’t have any clue to the real conspiracy and the actual conspirators.” A senior official source confided on Monday that the top officials of General Pervez Musharraf administration have received an in-depth official report suggesting that the evidence collected so far by the police investigators is so fragile that K M Samdani and Khawaja Naveed — the country’s best known lawyers in criminal cases representing the four suspects — may have a walk-over in the case against the prosecution.
Police investigators are worried that while they were about to indict Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh, Salman Saqib, Sheikh Adil and Fahad Nasim for role in the murder of Daniel Pearl, they have not recovered any remains of Danny’s body or material that may have belonged to the deceased.
“At the outset the court would like to examine the weapons used in the murder or any other related material such as blood-stained clothes of the victim or the search report from the scene of the offence,” observed a police prosecutor.
“The police have nothing to offer any material evidence in response to those questions. So far there is nothing to connect these four suspects with the Danny’s murder,” he adds. Police investigators, officials confirmed, have not been able to collect expert opinion that may be presented in the court to prove that the 195-second long poorly edited video film showing the slitting of Danny’s neck was not a digitally concocted footage but a genuine film.
The investigators have also not given any plausible answers to the prosecutors about the origin of the video, as it is likely to be intensely questioned by the defence attorneys. The investigators privately admit that the officials of the United States consulate general in Karachi handed them the video, but they have not been able to trace any connection between the person who handed the video to the US officials and the perpetrators of the crime.
Two Pakistani officials who have seen the Danny’s murder video say that an expert opinion — confirming that Daniel was alive while he was being slaughtered in front of the camera — was also required but has not yet been sought by the police investigators from a well recognised medical doctor.
Officials said that they were most worried by the fact that while the high profile trial was about to commence the police investigators have not been able to trace even a single witness to Danny’s kidnapping.
“Forty days after the case, we have no eye witness to Danny’s kidnapping, torture or murder,” said an official. “It is like going to court almost empty handed.” While police investigators take credit to unearthing the individuals behind the e-mails that had initially confirmed Pearl’s abduction, they have no computer skill, knowledge and not even the independent experts to appear in the court to establish that the e-mails sent to the media organisations actually originated from the lap top they had seized from a Karachi residence.
“What if the defence alleges that the e-mails were actually planted on the hard disk of the lap top ?,” an official draw a blank response as he quizzed a police official involved in the investigation.
Police investigators privately admit that the FBI officials covered the technical side of the case but they may not be ready to testify in any court of law as their cross examination by the defence attorneys may compromise their identities and modes of investigation.
“There is nothing to suggest that the FBI officials were ready to be produced as prosecution witnesses by the police investigators in Karachi,” a senior police official said. “My impression is that the FBI was actually working to build a case against Omar for trial in a US court,” he said.
A senior official who recently examined the evidence available with the police on the technical side of the investigation was appalled to learn that no independent witnesses had signed the memos that relate to the seizure of computer, scanner, printer and other material that was seized as evidence to prove the origins of the e-mails.
“In such cases properly maintained and signed seizure memos and the independent witnesses who should have personally witnessed the whole process play a crucial role,” observed an official.
“I am afraid that this aspect would further weaken the prosecution’s case,” he said. Senior officials have privately confirmed that despite best efforts the police investigators have not yet been able to convince any of the four suspects to become a state approver in the case.
A police investigator, however, said the negotiations were under way with the “least hardened militant” so that he can identify Omar, Saqib and Adil in a court of law as individuals who had arranged the material and Danny’s pictures for the e-mail.
Even the senior police investigators have acknowledged that the disputed confessional statements recorded by Fahad Nasim and Salman Saqib — two of the four suspects now under arrest — carry no legal merits as such statements almost invariably are refuted during the trial.
While police is ready to place the names of at least seven persons as absconders in the case, its investigators have no clue whatsoever about the real identities or physical descriptions of at least four people on that list.
These four mysterious individuals have been identified as Hassan, Imtiaz Siddiqi, Ahmed Bhai and an unknown person who filmed the Danny’s video. Police investigators, however, possess profiles of Amjad Hussain Farooqi alias Hyder alias Hasan Mansoor, Asim alias Qasim and Hashim.
Source: The News
Date:3/5/2002
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