Officers: Suspect Admitted His Guilt

Two Karachi police officers testified Tuesday they heard British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh admit his role in the kidnap-slaying of reporter Daniel Pearl.

The courtroom inside the Karachi Central Jail remained closed to journalists and members of the public Tuesday, the second day of proceedings against Saeed and three others. All four men have pleaded innocent to charges of murder, kidnapping and terrorism; they face the death penalty if convicted.

The police officers' testimony follows the statements Monday by a taxi driver who said he drove Pearl to a meeting with Saeed, and that he saw Pearl get into Saeed's car.

On Tuesday, defense attorneys said they objected to the admissibility of the testimony from Athar Rashid and Faisal Noor, saying the officers had heard Saeed make a statement that was not under oath.

"They said they heard Sheikh Omar confessing his crime," said attorney Khawaja Naveed, who represents two of Saeed's co-defendants, Fahad Naseem and Sheikh Mohammed Adeel. Saeed is known locally as Sheikh Omar.

"They said that Sheikh Omar said number one that he masterminded the kidnapping of Mr. Pearl, number two that he will not defend himself before the court and number three that Mr. Pearl is dead," Naveed said.

Saeed has repeatedly objected to being tried under Pakistan's "British" secular court system and said he should be tried under Islamic law.

Both Naveed and Saeed's attorney, Abdul Waheed Katpar, said Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon — the sole person weighing the evidence in the bench trial — allowed the testimony, saying he would decide on its admissibility when making a final judgment.

Chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi said he knew the statement was not made under oath. "We just wanted to produce the men to bring to the notice of the judge that he did make such a statement."

"Now it's up to the judge to decide," Quereshi said.

Memon replaced Judge Arshad Noor Khan as the trial judge on Friday because Khan was also present at the Feb. 14 hearing where Saeed made the statements. Quereshi said he may call Khan and police officer Rao Aslam to further corroborate the testimony of Rashid and Noor.

The testimony of the first witness of the day, Jamil Yusuf, was interrupted by an outburst from the fourth defendant, Salman Saqib, who called Yusuf an "agent of the Jews," Naveed said.

Yusuf, the head of Karachi's Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, who participated in the police investigation of the Pearl kidnapping, was testifying that he had a meeting with Pearl the night he disappeared.

"Saqib started shouting at Yusuf, accusing him of having tortured him and he also (verbally) abused Yusuf while he was giving his statement, saying that he is not to be trusted," Naveed said.

After the interruption Yusuf testified that while he was talking to Pearl on Jan. 23 about policing issues, the reporter received two calls on his cell phone, once telling "the caller he would be coming soon," Katpar said.

Yusuf testified that he later learned that the calls had been traced to one of seven men still sought in the kidnapping.

In the first day of the trial, taxi driver Nasir Abbas testified he took Pearl to the appointment with Yusuf, then drove him to a location outside a Karachi restaurant, where he saw Pearl get out of his cab and get into a car with Saeed.

Pearl, the Wall Street Journal's South Asia correspondent, disappeared that night while supposedly researching links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, the man arrested in December on a Paris-Miami flight with explosives in his shoes. A previously unknown group called the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty sent e-mails a few days later announcing Pearl's kidnapping and showing pictures of him in captivity.

A videotape received by U.S. diplomats in Pakistan on Feb. 21 confirmed Pearl, 38, was dead. His body has not been found.

U.S. investigators traced the e-mails to Naseem, who in turn identified Saeed as the mastermind, police said.

Quereshi said two FBI agents who traced the e-mails are on his witness list, but would not say whom he plans to call Wednesday.