U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that Washington will not let the suspected murderer of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl "escape justice".
The acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen made the statement in apparent response to a Pakistani court ruling, acquitting Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh of masterminding the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter.
Pearl, a bureau chief for the Journal, was kidnapped and subsequently beheaded in the Pakistani city of Karachi as he worked on a story on Islamist militants.
Sheikh is accused of helping to goad Pearl into arriving in the city. He was convicted for his alleged part in Pearl's murder and spent over a decade on death row.
A Pakistani court acquitted him earlier this year.
“The separate judicial rulings reversing his conviction and ordering his release are an affront to terrorism victims everywhere,” Rosen said Wednesday, referring to the suspected terrorist.
The official hailed the appeals against the contentious rulings and said that if those were to fail, the Justice Department would be willing to take matters into its own hands.
"The United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here,” Rosen added.
Republished with permission from i24NEWS