Omar's trial put off amid wrangling

The trial of Sheikh Omar Ahmed Saeed and his three accomplices in the case of kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, which was to start yesterday morning, fell victim to legal wranglings and had to be put off till next week, lawyers and officials, called for the proceedings in the Karachi Central Jail, said later.

But such an outcome of a case, with far reaching bearing on the country's security, was not unexpected. It had in fact been predicted by Raja Qureshi, the chief prosecutor during an informal exchange of notes with journalists on Thursday.

"The rules of the game will have to be followed. The defence needed copies of evidence brought before the anti-terrorist court of judge Arshad Noor Khan, which were given to them. They obviously needed time to study the matter, and will come prepared for the trial to start formally on April 12," he said.

The father of Sheikh Omar and brother of another defendant was allowed inside the court room ahead of the trial but public and the media were barred from attending even the preliminary session, held behind closed doors, and a system of press briefing was followed, but local and foreign newsmen recorded their protest over the decision by staging a sit-in in front of the prison gates.

Reporters were allowed entry into the jail compound after identification, but were denied access to the main building where a make-shift court room had been set up.

Members of the print and electronic media, who had to wait for three hours in scorching heat, bombarded Qureshi with questions like: "Why is the trial being held in camera? Why have the journalists been kept out? How do we know we are not being given doctored version of such an important case?"

Qureshi and some half a dozen police and court officials faced them calmly and tried to reply to them with utmost patience.

"Gentlemen, let me assure you this is not an in-camera trial. We are trying to maintain openness in the case to the maximum limit we can go. The anti-terrorist law governing the trial allows the proceedings to be held in jail and even in camera. There are precedents in India of Indira Gandhi trial, of Murtaza Bhutto case in Pakistan, but please have some patience. Let the competent authorities in this particular case, take a final decision about the openness of the case".

But the newsmen were dissatisfied. The rage, which had subsided only temporarily, erupted in its full fury again when Qureshi was asked: "What is the difference between the in camera trial and the one you held today? What are the sensitivities of the situation, you keep referring to?"

Qureshi replied that the decision to allow the press to attend the proceedings was still pending. He disclosed that the scope of the trial had been extended to include all the 11 suspects in the case. Non-bailable warrants have, therefore, been issued for the seven absconding suspects like Amjad Farooqi, Imtiaz Siddiqi and others.

The defence counsels were supplied with e-mails, photographs and other material, but since the demand for video showing the gruesome murder of the American reporter was not pressed, the film was not given to counsels from the other side.

An apparent difference of opinion about what happened in the court surfaced when Khwaja Naveed, representing former police constable Adil Sheikh, and the two cyber cafe employees Salman Saquib and Fahd Naseem, who too have been netted for sending e-mails and photographs of the deceased to media organisations, claimed that Salman had complained about torture in jail.

"Sheikh Omar was silent during the entire proceedings, he was very clam and very quiet," Naveed said but added that "Salman Saquib shouted that he was tortured during investigations, saying police slapped him at least 350 times and hit him in the face with shoes on at least 450 occasions".

He said the judge had assigned a doctor to treat him. When Qureshi was confronted with a question about this, he denied having heard any such protest.

However he did admit that Salman had complained about an ailment and was ordered a doctor immediately.

Asked whether Pearl's French wife Marriane had been called as witness, the advocate general said that she knows she is a witness. She could come at her convenience, but the prosecution will go ahead with the remaining 35 witnesses when the trial formally starts next Friday.

It will be held on the next day also and would continue on day-to-day basis, except for Sundays and holidays.