The British-born militant Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was...

The British-born militant Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was charged in Pakistan with the kidnapping and murder of the US journalist Daniel Pearl, told the judge at the closed hearing in court in Karachi that he did not recognise the court, adding: "I request my trial to be conducted in the shariat [Islamic] courts."
His trial and that of his three alleged accomplices will begin on April 5 in Karachi's main jail, prosecutors said outside the court. It is likely to last a week.
If convicted he is liable to the death penalty.
The Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, has come under intense pressure from Washington to bring Pearl's killers rapidly to justice. A US federal grand jury has also indicted Sheikh for Pearl's murder. Some observers believe that officials are keen to keep Sheikh closely guarded and away from the US because it is feared that, given the chance, he will implicate the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, in Pearl's kidnapping and murder.