The death sentence given to a British terrorist convicted of killing journalist Daniel Pearl has been overturned.
British national Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder and abduction of the Wall Street Journal reporter.
He has been in jail for 18 years awaiting the outcome of an appeal.
Today the Sindh High Court in Pakistan has now replaced that with seven years imprisonment.
"The court has commuted Omar's death sentence to a seven year sentence," Khawaja Naveed, the defence lawyer told Reuters
by telephone.
"The murder charges were not proven, so he has given seven years for the kidnapping."
"Omar has already served 18 years, so his release orders will be issued sometime today. He will be out in a few days," Naveed said.
Pearl had been working as the South Asia Bureau Chief, based in Mumbai, India, when he was kidnapped after entering Pakistan almost two decades ago.
The 38-year-old was investigating the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid and Al-Qaeda.
Believing he was on his way to interview Sheik Mubarak Ali Gilani at the Village restaurant in Karachi on January 23, 2002, Pearl was kidnapped at around 7pm.
The abductors were a militant group calling themselves the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.
Three other co-accused - Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib - were originally handed life sentences but have now been freed.
A decision on the appeal, pending for 18 years, had been deferred from last month.
The court, overseen by Justice Karim Khan Agha, said while there was evidence Omar abducted Pearl, there was nothing definitively tying him to the murder, reports SAMAA.
