May 12, 2002	Sunday	Safar 28, 1423

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WASHINGTON, May 11: The United States has apparently agreed to let Pakistan try Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main accused in the Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder case, before making any moves seeking his extradition.

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said during his just concluded visit to Washington that US authorities were satisfied with the investigations and trial in the Pearl case suspect, and had trust in Pakistan’s judicial system.

Newspaper reports here have suggested that Sheikh’s trial may be concluded soon and that he is likely to be awarded capital punishment.

At Friday afternoon’s press briefing, State Department spoksman Richard Boucher said the US position remained that it wanted to try Sheikh, but it had also been made clear from the beginning that there was always “a question of when different jurisdictions should try somebody and punish somebody, how to work out the sequencing of that. We decided in this case that the Pakistani judicial system should go first.”

Asked whether if Sheikh was going to be sentenced to death, would the US feel that it had to try him before he would be extradited back to Pakistan to face execution, Mr Boucher said: “I don’t want to speculate at this point. I think all I’m saying is Pakistanis are holding the trial first.”