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CNN Live At Daybreak

Trial Date Set for Saeed

Aired March 29, 2002 - 05:08   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: Also in the news, a trial date has been set for the men accused in the kidnap and murder of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl. The alleged mastermind was back in the Karachi courtroom today.

Our Ash-Har Quraishi is in the Pakistani city and he joins us live now by video phone -- what happened today, Ash-Har?

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. The judge today ordered the trial date set for April 5, one week from today. Now, the suspected mastermind in the kidnapping murder of Daniel Pearl, Ahmed Sheikh Omar Saeed, arrived today again, once again, amid heavy security, many police officers, armed guards, etc.

Now, he also this time, though, was unhooded. He came unhooded along with one other suspect in the case. They arrived at the high court today and were inside chambers closed off to the media and the public once again. The prosecution today has issued the final charge sheet, not much different from what they issued last week. But this was called the final charge sheet, in which case the judge has set that trial date.

Now, also the judge in this case says that this trial will be held in the Karachi center jail. That's for security reasons. We understand that the defense intends to appeal this. So far there's been no decision as to whether or not there will be cameras allowed in that court or whether or not there will be media access to that courtroom, as well.

Now, the other two suspects in this case did not appear in court. Saeed, however, and the other suspect, Sheikh Adil, did appear in court. Now, all four are set to appear in court next week on the 5th, at which time we're expecting an indictment to be handed down and the trial to actually begin. Under anti-terrorism laws here in Pakistan, that trial should last about seven days. The maximum penalty for the charges that still stand, which are kidnapping for ransom, terroristic acts and murder, the maximum penalty for those charges, if convicted, could be the death penalty -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And I guess the big fear here with security, Ash-Har, is that supporters of Saeed Sheikh will storm the proceedings and rescue him, per se.

QURAISHI: Well, security absolutely very, very heavy right now. We were led to believe that we might be able to sit in on the court today and listen to the actual proceedings. That wasn't the case. Very secretive about where exactly this was going to happen until moments before. We didn't even know which high court, or which court this actually, this was going to happen at.

So they're being very, very tight about security. They're having, they're being very secretive about where these things are being held and the jail, the Karachi central jail, that's being, that being the venue is saying a lot about how seriously they're handling security here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Good enough.

Ash-Har Quraishi reporting live for us from Karachi, Pakistan this morning.

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