Karachi, Aug 07: A fifth attempt by a Pakistani court to hear the appeals of four Islamic militants convicted of plotting the kidnapping and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl was abandoned today when lawyers failed to appear. "The judge adjourned the case because prosecutors and defence lawyers could not attend," defence lawyer Khawaja Naveed told outside the provincial Sindh High Court in Pakistan's strife-torn southern port city Karachi.
British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three fellow militants were convicted over Pearl's January 2002 kidnapping and murder in July of the same year.
Sheikh was sentenced to death and his accomplices received life sentences.
All four appealed immediately and their appeal hearings were supposed to begin in January, but they have been repeatedly delayed.
"This is the fifth time the case has been adjourned for one reason or another ... sometimes because the defence did not appear sometimes the prosecution did not appear, or sometimes the court was not free," Sheikh's lawyer Abdul Waheed Katpar told.
Bureau Reoport