KARACHI, March 24: Lahore-based lawyer Saiful Malook said here on Saturday that the principal accused in the Daniel Pearl case, Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, would be defended by a team of counsel once the prosecution filed the final challan and charges were framed against all the accused.

Counsel Malook was sceptical about the presence of any one of his team members here on March 29 when the prosecution is required to submit the final challan in the case. The prosecution, nevertheless, would do so before that date.

He told Dawn that when the final challan was submitted the court would be bound to provide its copy and the accused would have seven days to raise their defence.

Omar, he said, would be defended by a team of lawyers who were working on the case, though so far they were not in possession of a copy of even the interim challan.

The judge of an anti-terrorism court on Friday sent Omar, along with a co- accused, Adil Shaikh, to prison after the prosecution submitted interim challan against them and nine others, charging them with kidnapping for ransom, murder and terrorism coupled with conspiracy.