WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States may seek to try in a U.S. court a man accused of killing American journalist Daniel Pearl after a Pakistani court ordered his release, acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said on Tuesday.
Last week, a Pakistani court ordered the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, after his conviction was overturned.
“The separate judicial rulings reversing his conviction and ordering his release are an affront to terrorism victims everywhere,” Rosen said in a statement.
If efforts to reinstate Sheikh’s conviction were not successful, he said, “The United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here.
“We cannot allow him to evade justice for his role in Daniel Pearl’s abduction and murder,” Rosen added.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
