The chief suspect in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl told a Pakistani court today he thought the US reporter was dead.
The Pakistan government dismissed the statement by British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh as untrustworthy, while Mr Pearl's employer, the
Wall Street Journal
, said it remained confident he was alive.
|
|
A photo released last month by Mr Daniel Pearl's kidnappers
|
Investigators said they had evidence which made them believe Mr Pearl was still alive.
Mr Pearl's abduction has been an embarrassment to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during a visit to Washington this week, but police say they are steadily closing in on the kidnappers after making four arrests in the past nine days.
Mr Pearl's wife Mariane, who is six months pregnant with their first child, urged his captors to let him go or give some word on his condition.
"I want to appeal again to you to please release him or at least let me know how he is doing," she said in a statement released in New York by The Wall Street Journal. "As I do not have any news about Danny's health and well-being this has been a very difficult time for me."
Prime suspect Sheikh Omar, as he is commonly known, appeared in an anti-terrorism court in the southern city of Karachi and calmly confessed to the abduction of Pearl three weeks ago, in an apparent protest at the US war in Afghanistan.
"As far as I understand, he is dead," the bespectacled and clean-shaven Sheikh Omar told the court.
In response to a question from the judge, Sheikh Omar said: "Yes, I kidnapped him."
But investigators said Mr Omar's statement could have been a publicity stunt, pointing out he had told them Mr Pearl was alive after his arrest on Tuesday.
"This gentleman has been making several statements and changing those statements," Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told a news briefing in Islamabad. "We cannot give any credence to any of these statements that he gives."