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Pakistan Re-Arrests Men Acquitted of ‘Wall Street Journal’ Reporter Daniel Pearl’s Murder

Just over 24 hours ago, the men were acquitted of involvement in the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl.

Yesterday, a Pakistani court overturned the convictions of four men who were connected to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002—but now all four of them have been re-arrested. The High Court in the southern province of Sindh acquitted the four on Thursday, including British militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for allegedly masterminding the murder. But, before they could be released from prison Friday, the Sindh provincial government’s Home Department issued an order to arrest them again. Reuters reports that the law to keep them in detention is often used to keep high-profile suspects locked up when prosecutors are unable to successfully prove their guilt in court. The United States condemned the court’s acquittal of the four on Thursday, with the top U.S. diplomat for South Asia writing on Twitter that it was “an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere.”