Trial in case of slain Wall Street Journal reporter adjourned after brief session in Pakistan

Friday, April 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) _ A Pakistani judge on Friday opened the trial of four men accused in the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, but quickly adjourned the proceedings for a week to give prosecutors time to hand over key evidence.

The attorney for British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh demanded that Pakistani prosecutors provide copies of e-mails and photos sent to authorities announcing Pearl's Jan. 23 abduction, another defense lawyer said. The case was then postponed until April 12.

Police armed with assault rifles took up positions in the watch towers and gates of this city's colonial-era prison where Saeed, 29, and his three co-defendants began their trial on charges of murder, kidnapping and terrorism. All four face the death penalty if convicted.

Pearl disappeared while researching Pakistani extremists and their possible links to Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives in his shoes.

A few days later, the previously unknown National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty announced his kidnapping in e-mails to U.S. and Pakistani news organizations. A videotape received by U.S. diplomats Feb. 21 confirmed Pearl was dead. His body has not been found.

The key break in the case came when FBI agents traced the e-mails to one of the co-defendants, Fahad Naseem, who identified Saeed as the mastermind. Saeed was arrested in February in the eastern city of Lahore.

None of the four defendants _ who also include Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammed Adeel _ was believed to have been holding Pearl or to have killed him. The others allegedly sent the e-mails announcing Pearl's abduction.

Authorities issued arrest warrants Friday for seven suspects who remain at large, including those authorities believe killed Pearl.

Saeed's father and Adeel's brother were among the relatives allowed to attend the trial Friday at Karachi Central Jail, but journalists were kept well behind the iron gates leading to a building housing the courtroom.

Prosecutors cited security and the sensitivity of the case as their reasons for keeping the media out. Police searched cars entering the prison and patrolled outside its walls amid heavy security.

Judge Arshad Noor Khan granted defense attorney Abdul Waheed Katpar's request for the e-mails and other documents during the hour-long session. Katpar said some documents had been handed over before the trial but that the defense was still waiting for others.

``I won't say it was a deliberate attempt to delay the case,'' Katpar said. ``It is normal that in the Pakistani legal system things move slowly.''

Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, the lawyer for the three alleged accomplices, said Saqib caused a disturbance, screaming at the judge that he had served his country but was being tortured. Saqib told Khan that a policeman struck him in the face and beat him with a shoe.

'' `I was beaten and hung upside down four times,' '' Ahmed quoted Saqib as saying.

Khan granted his request for a doctor.

Saeed has also been indicted in the Pearl case by a federal grand jury in New Jersey. The Justice Department also confirmed he had been charged in a sealed indictment with kidnapping an American in India in 1994.

However, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told Pakistani journalists last week that his government would not only prosecute Saeed but also punish him before agreeing to hand him over to the United States.

Saeed has long been associated with Islamic extremist movements, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammed, and is believed to have trained at camps in Afghanistan.

He was arrested in India and spent five years in jail without charge. He was freed in December 1999 along with two other Islamic militants in exchange for passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines jet that was hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

During a pretrial hearing in February, Saeed admitted involvement in the kidnapping but later withdrew the statement, which was not made under oath.

The prosecution's case relies heavily on taxi driver Nasir Abbas, who told police he drove Pearl to a restaurant the night he disappeared and saw him shake hands with Saeed before getting into his car.

Naseem reportedly told police that he sent the e-mails on Saeed's orders. He also said that a few days before the kidnapping, Saeed told him he was going to kidnap someone who was ``anti-Islam and a Jew.'' The prosecution plans to call about 30 witnesses, including FBI agents who worked on the case.