By: Zarar Khan, Associated Press Writer (AP) Prosecutors dropped a request Wednesday to have the widow of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl testify against four men charged in his murder, saying they will conclude their case this week.
Chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi said he decided not to pursue Mariane Pearl's testimony after her attorney filed a statement in court saying she would be unable to travel to London or Pakistan for medical reasons.
Her attorney did not elaborate on her condition. Mrs. Pearl, 38, gave birth to her first child, Adam, a week ago in Paris, where the French free-lance journalist lives. She earlier said she was willing to testify as long as her doctors approved the trip.
Daniel Pearl, the
Journal's South Asia bureau chief, disappeared from the port city of Karachi on Jan. 23 while working on a story about Pakistani militants. After his disappearance, e-mails -- with photos showing a captive Pearl -- were sent to news agencies from an unknown group demanding better treatment for al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners held in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Four Islamic radicals, including suspected mastermind Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, are on trial for Pearl's kidnapping and murder. They have pleaded not guilty.
Quereshi said Wednesday that not having Mariane Pearl as a witness "would neither hurt nor help the prosecution case at this time."
She only would have testified that she made the initial criminal complaint and had e-mails she received showing her husband in captivity, Quereshi said. Both the complaint and the e-mails are already in the court record, he said.
In the closed-door proceedings Wednesday, the prosecution and defense finished cross-examining police official Rao Aslam. Only one other prosecution witness remains: police officer Hamid Ullah Memon.
"With God willing and luck on my side, we shall conclude our case in two days," Quereshi said.
Prosecutors have been trying to speed up the case, dropping 13 other witnesses two weeks ago, because of potential legal complications arising from the discovery of a dismembered body May 17 in Karachi.
The body was found in a shallow grave near a blood-splattered shed where police believe Pearl was kept by his captors. Authorities had been tipped off to the body by three suspects in custody, identified by Pakistan television as members of the Muslim group Lashkar-e-Janghvi, which has links to al-Qaida. They have not been charged in the Pearl case.
Defense attorneys have said that if DNA tests confirm the body is Pearl's and new suspects are charged as a result, the current trial would have to be thrown out and a new one begun.
Forensic laboratory officials in Lahore said they are still waiting for blood samples from Pearl's family so they can make a positive match.
Defense attorneys are also waiting for a decision from the provincial Sindh High Court on their request for copies of a videotape showing Pearl's slaying. The grisly tape was delivered to U.S. officials on Feb. 21, and a three-minute portion was played in court last month. The defense has maintained the tape was a fake.
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