10A= THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY,FEB.26,2002
Trials delayed for men accused of killing reporter
The Associated Press
KARACHI, Pakistan — A Pakistani judge yesterday gave prosecutors two more weeks to build their case against three Islamic militants accused in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The judge in the southern city of Karachi ordered top suspect Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and two alleged accomplices jailed until their next court hearing. Police will continue to search for Pearl's body.
In Islamabad, the U.S. ambassador said she would meet with President Pervez Musharraf on tomorrow to discuss Saeed's extradition to the United States. President Bush said the United States was "interested in dealing with" Saeed, but had expressed confidence that Pakistan was doing enough to round up Pearl's killers.
Saeed and two co-defendants — Sheikh Mohammed Adeel and Salman Saqib — were brought to a special antiterrorism court. Dozens of policemen patrolled the corridors and grounds of the courthouse. The suspects were taken to a closed hearing in the judge's cham-
bera. A preliminary indictment expected
vered was delayed by the judge.
Inside the judge's chamber, all three suspects said they had been forced to sign pieces of paper to be used in falsifying confessions, according to defense attorney Khawaja Naveed.
Charges are expected to include murder, following Friday's disclosure of a gruesome videotape showing the 38-year-old journalist being decapitated.
At least four key suspects are at large. The main target of a nationwide police manhunt is Amjad Faruqi, who police believe carried out the kidnapping.
Seaeed, the British-born Islamic militant who police said masterminded Pearl's Jan. 23 abduction, stunned a courtroom on Feb. 14 when he confessed to the kidnapping and announced that as far as he knew, Pearl was dead.
The question of whether Saeed could be extradited to the United States emerged Sunday when Newsweek magazine reported that a
Court officials said that confession would not be enough to convict Saeed because it was not made under oath. Yesterday, Naveed said Saeed did not want to give a sworn confession.
U. S. federal grand jury had secretly indicted him for his role in the 1994 kidnapping of four Western tourists in India, including one American.
The United States and Pakistan do not have an extradition treaty.
The U.S. government wanted Saeed extradited from Pakistan at least two months before he was implicated in Pearl's slaying, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin said yesterday. Chamberlin said she would raise the extradition issue anew during her meeting Tuesday with Musharraf
The videotape that confirmed Pearl's death was delivered to U.S. officials in Karachi on Thursday. According to investigators, the tape showed Pearl being forced to say he was Jewish and then having his neck cut while he was unconscious or already dead. The only face shown in the video was Pearl's.
Quereshi, the chief prosecutor, said that the images of the hands mutilating Pearl could be used by the prosecution as evidence.
Adeel and Saqib, the two defendants who appeared in court with Saeed, have been accused of sending e-mails
announcing Pearl's kidnapping. A third accused e-mailer, 21-year-old Fahad Naseem, was not in court.
Mohammed Aslam, Adeel's brother, insisted yesterday that Adeel was innocent, but confirmed that his brother had been involved in Islamic "holy war" activities for years. He said Adeel spent time in Afghanistan as recently as December to support that country's now ousted Taliban regime.
Authorities originally said Saeed was arrested on Feb. 12, but the senior investigator confirmed yesterday that he had surrendered on Feb. 5. He said intelligence officers kept the surrender under wraps because they were trying to get Saeed to lead them to Pearl.
In their hunt for the remaining suspects, police believe they may have found a link to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, citing the involvement of three Arabs who were allegedly seen accompanying Faruqi.
Pearl had been investigating alleged links between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December for allegedly trying to detonate explosives in his sneakers during a Paris-Miami flight.
Ex-ruling party race in Mexico too close to call
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY—The two candidates to be the next president of Mexico's former ruling party had to delay any victory parties as partial results yesterday showed the election too close to call.
With 60.6 percent of the votes counted, Beatriz Paredes had 53.1 percent of valid votes while Roberto Madrazo had 46.9 percent after an unexpectedly heavy turnout in Sunday's election in the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
But that count was unofficial and Sen. Humberto Roque Villanueva, overseeing the election, said the official count was expected later in the week.
Roque said more than 3 million people voted in the PRI's first-ever open internal election. PRI officials printed 9 million ballots but only expected as few as 1.5 million voters to turn out.
Paredes said she received "firm data" showing her ahead late Sunday.
when the early party counts were nearly even, but she would respect the results announced by Roque's commission.
In a scene reminiscent of old-style Mexican politics, about 500 people who claimed to be Madrazo supporters burst into PRI headquarters in Mexico City late Sunday demanding that the commission recognize his victory.
Roque said the incursion forced the vote-counting center to shut down for a time. Madrazo aides said the invasion had been organized by rivals to discredit him.
Although protesters forced building doors open, they did not cause any damage or injuries.
during his term.
Roque insisted that the party would emerge stronger from the first open vote for its internal leader — a figure who in the past was imposed by Mexico's president.
"Our political death has been predicted many times" since the July 2000 presidential election that ended the PRI's 71-year hold on the presidency, Roque said in a broadcast interview.
The party president will help determine ideology, negotiate with President Vicente Fox's government and have a powerful say in choosing candidates.
Many elections during the PRI's seven-decade reign were marred by fraud allegations. PRI leaders went so far as to invite international election observers to oversee balloting. Still, each candidate accused the other of misconduct.
But Sunday's contest also represented a chance for the party to at least partially restore a reputation tainted by corruption.
Paredes supporters accused the Madrazo campaign of distributing fliers in Mexico state containing false information about voting locations to confuse Paredes supporters, committing fraud in Chiapas and distributing gifts to Madrazo voters in Veracruz.
Madrazo backers accused the Parades campaign of pressuring voters in
Mexico state and claimed that some officials there violated election rules by intervening for the candidate. The Madrazo campaign also protested after the Paredes campaign released an unofficial exit poll.
Paredes — a tough, no-nonsense politician considered the underdog took a leave of absence as the PRI's leader in the lower house of Congress to run for the party presidency. She is former governor of Tlaxcala state and former ambassador to Cuba.
Madrazo is the former governor of Tabasco state, a former federal congressman and a former PRI senator.
A win by Madrazo is considered key to his ambition to run in the 2006 nationwide presidential elections. Some fear that if Madrazo loses, he will bolt the party and bring many PRI supporters with him.
But Roque told the government news agency Notimex that PRI leaders were prepared to work with the losing candidate to prevent a defection.
Candidate in Zimbabwe charged with treason
The Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe — The main challenger to President Robert Mugabe was charged yesterday with treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate the Zimbabwe leader before the presidential vote.
Morgan Tsvangirai denied allegations and pledged to continue campaigning for the March 9-10 elections.
"This whole thing is contrived to damage me politically. The timing is obvious." Tsvangirai said.
Mugabe, the southern African nation's only leader since winning independence from Britain, is fighting for his political survival as Zimbabwe's economy collapses.
Police questioned Tsvangirai, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's main opposition party, yesterday. He was charged with treason, released and
told he would be summoned later. Treason convictions carry the death penalty in Zimbabwe.
Two senior party colleagues, Secretary-General Welshman Ncube and shadow Agriculture Minister Renson Gasela, were charged.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the charge "falls against a backdrop of a very well-documented campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition."
"We're aware of no convincing evidence that there's any basis for these allegations," said spokesman Richard Boucher.
He said the allegations appeared to be another example of Mugabe's "increasingly authoritarian rule."
Zimbabwe has been wracked by political violence over the past two years.
Yesterday, South African observers accused police of failing to protect
opposition supporters from attacks by ruling party activists.
Mugabe said that he would not have Tsvangirai arrested before the elections despite allegations of the assassination plot.
The government said Tsvangirai met with members of a Canada-based political consulting firm last year to arrange for Mugabe's elimination.
Tsvangirai said he hired the Canadian consulting firm to lobby abroad for his party, known as the MDC. He said his recorded remarks were taken out of context.
Ten days ago, the firm released a secretly recorded videotape of a Dec.4 meeting in Montreal, which they said incriminated Tsvangirai.
On the tape, Tsvangirai said: "We have moved so far we can now definitely say that Mugabe is going to be eliminated. But what is the transitional arrangement?"
A local media monitoring group said the recording had been heavily edited and rearranged.
Ben-Menasha left Harare on Sunday after meeting with authorities.
Mugabe has told supporters he knew of the alleged plot last year but did nothing to have Tsvangirai arrested "for fear of plunging the country into chaos."
Last Friday, the Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, reported that Tsvangirai claimed he would receive the support of the United States and other governments to head a transitional government following Mugabe's planned assassination.
Tsangirai's motorcade has been attacked at least three times in the last two years since political violence began before the June 2000 parliamentary elections.
the second day, whose speech was broadcast live on state-run radio, also praised Iran for taking in some 2 million Afghan refugees over the years.
"We will never forget your support of the Afghan nation's struggle against the former Soviet Union and later against terrorists," Karzai said on the second day of his first official visit to Iran.
Speaking to the Iranian Majis, or parliament in Persian — the language of Iran and western and central Afghanistan — Karzai assured Iranians the Afghan people would not forget.
After repeated charges by Washington that Tehran was sending fighters and money into Afghanistan to destabilize the post-Taliban leadership, President Bush declared that Iran, Iraq and North Korea form an "axis of evil" that seeks weapons of mass destruction and supports terrorism.
"You have shared our sorrows and pains, and millions of our refugees have been a big burden on your shoulders," he said.
Karzai was hailed in the United States last month when he visited Bush and other dignitaries. The interim leader was sitting in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives as Bush made the "axis of evil" assertion in his Jan. 29 State of the Union speech. He received as warm a welcome in the Iranian Parliament as he did in the U.S. Congress.
TEHRAN, Iran — Ignoring U.S. claims that Iran seeks to destabilize his country, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai thanked Tehran yesterday for helping Afghanistan fight terrorism and throw off the yoke of Soviet occupation more than a decade ago.
Karzai also met with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who warned the Afghan leader his government "should be careful that the issue of reconstruction is not exploited by others to infiltrate Afghanistan politically and economically." Iranian state television reported, in an obvious reference to U.S. involvement.
Israel considers Saudi proposal
JERUSALEM — Israel said yesterday it is exploring with interest a tentative Saudi proposal that calls for an Israeli pullout from virtually all the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for comprehensive peace.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has fiercely opposed a total pullout. But he knows Israelis are despondent over 17 months of dead-end conflict and eager for a ray of hope. The Saudi proposal offers two things Israel craves: Broad acceptance by Arab states and a negotiating partner beyond Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
However, any discussion of significant concessions to Palestinians could undermine Sharon's governing coalition — a patchwork of parties with widely divergent positions on the land-for peace idea. The Palestinians and moderate Arabs have welcomed the Saudi idea, and Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday it was an important step he hoped would be fleshed out in the next few weeks.
The Associated Press
Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, told The Associated Press on yesterday that Israel was "trying to find out through the United States and other sources ... if this is a real proposal."
"If indeed a reasonable offer is presented ... that will guarantee not just that Israel gives back territory but that real, true normalization will develop—I think you can restore the confidence in peace because most of the people want peace." Gissin said.
Trying to build momentum, Israel's President Moshe Katsav said Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah should come to Israel for talks, or alternatively receive him in Riyadh. However, Katsav has a mainly ceremonial role, and the real power rests with Sharon. When Katsav wanted to address the Palestinian parliament recently, Sharon blocked the plan.
Iran's fight against terrorism lauded