Pearl Defendant Warns U.S. of ‘More to Come’
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HYDERABAD, Pakistan — As his lawyers completed their final arguments Friday, the chief defendant in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl said Americans got what they deserved on Sept. 11 and warned of “more to come.”
In a message his lawyers said he passed to them in court, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh said the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Monday and Israeli operations in Palestinian areas would unleash more anger.
“Following the barbaric bombardment of a wedding ceremony in Afghanistan in which a number of innocent women and children were killed, and the demolition of houses by Israeli troops in Palestine, which again claimed a number of innocent lives, the Americans should have realized by now that whatever happened on Sept. 11, not only did they deserve that, but also there is more to come,” Saeed said in the message.
Saeed, a British-born, former London School of Economics student, is accused of masterminding Pearl’s kidnapping in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.
Saeed and three co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and terrorism charges.
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