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CNN Live At Daybreak

Saeed Appears in Court

Aired March 29, 2002 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go live to Karachi now and talk to Ash-Har Quraishi, who is there live, because one of the suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl was in court. What happened there today, Ash-Har?

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the suspected mastermind in the kidnapping and murder of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl, appeared in court again here in Karachi today. Unlike what we have seen in the last few weeks, he arrived without his head hooded. That was for identification purposes.

He appeared in court with one other suspect today. They went before the judge. After a few minutes -- this was behind doors in chambers -- they came out, they emerged. Prosecutors announced that the final charges have been issued in this case. Now, those charges were initially drawn up last week, including those three charges, were kidnapping for ransom, acts of terror as well as murder.

Now, last week what we heard from Saeed was that he would defend himself in this case. He said he did not trust lawyers. However, his father intervened and has asked for counsel to be assigned to him, and a prominent lawyer here in Pakistan was assigned to this case. The judge has accepted that so he will be defended by two attorneys here in Pakistan.

Now, what we are expecting to see as far as the ruling today was that the judge had assigned a date, one week from today, April 5, when the indictments are expected to be handed down and possibly a trial beginning. Now, once that trial begins, that will last about seven days, according to anti-terrorist laws, although there are loopholes where that could be extended. It's supposed to be taken care of in about seven days, and that will be something we'll be looking for in the next week or so.

Now, if found guilty of these charges, those that are accused could be facing a maximum penalty of the death penalty here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Ash-Har Quraishi reporting live for us from Karachi this morning.

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