KARACHI: Ahmad Omar Sheikh, the person convicted to death for killing American journalist Daniel Pearl, was getting all facilities guaranteed under the jail manual, including meetings with family members and lawyer.

This was stated in a report prepared by prison authorities. The report was submitted to a two-judge bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh of the Sindh High Court (SHC).

SHC had earlier questioned provision of facilities to the convict in accordance with the jail manual.

Sheikh was sentenced to death on charges of kidnapping and killing the US journalist, while his three accomplices – Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil – were sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs500,000 each by the ATC, Hyderabad, on July 15, 2002. The court had also directed the convicts to pay Rs2 million to the victim’s widow, Marianne Pearl.

However, Shaikh had appealed to the high court against the death sentence and his accomplices also filed appeals later.

Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped on January 23, 2002, from Karachi, and later beheaded by his captors.