Suspect in Pearl Murder Was Held, Covertly Questioned Before Death
Rights Groups Say Torture Of Detainee by Pakistan Likely Led to His Demise By JAY SOLOMON and STEVE LEVINE November 12, 2007; Page A3 A long-sought suspect in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was secretly detained and interrogated by U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies before he died earlier this year, say U.S. and Pakistani law-enforcement officials. [Danny Pearl] <http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/HC-FQ405_Pearl_20051021110450 .gif> The revelation about the suspect, Saud Memon, suggests that the interrogation may have played a role in his death, say lawyers and human-rights advocates who have accused the Bush administration of colluding with Islamabad in illegally arresting and detaining scores of suspected terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Memon was questioned both for his alleged involvement in Pearl's murder as well as his suspected role as a financier and facilitator for al Qaeda, including the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, according to a senior U.S. law-enforcement official. The official said the interrogation yielded intelligence that Memon was aiding the terrorist organization to develop anthrax strains. Memon was "in a lot of the rooms where important things were being discussed. He knew senior al Qaeda people, and was moving equipment and supplies," said the U.S. official, who had access to intelligence files on Memon. The U.S. official wouldn't comment on where or exactly when the U.S. held and questioned Memon. He said the suspect was returned to Pakistan because he was wanted for questioning in the Pearl murder. He also wouldn't say what, if any, new details the U.S. learned about Memon's alleged role in Pearl's death. A SUSPECT'S FATE . The News: U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies secretly detained and questioned Saud Memon, a suspect in Daniel Pearl's murder, law-enforcement officials say. Memon died two weeks after his family says he was released. . The Players: Investigators believe Memon was uniquely positioned to answer questions about why Pearl was abducted and slain. . The Background: Pakistan's missing persons and release of suspected terrorists has become a major issue pitting President Musharraf against his country's judiciary. On April 28, Memon, 44 years old, was dumped, badly injured and weighing less than 80 pounds, in front of his Karachi home, according to his family and human-rights groups. Five days later, he appeared before the Pakistani Supreme Court in Islamabad in a wheelchair, the Associated Press reported. He died on May 18 at a hospital in Karachi from what doctors said were complications related to meningitis and tuberculosis. Legal-aid and human-rights groups have accused Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence bureau, of torturing Memon during his detention in Pakistan, based on interviews with fellow prisoners. A Pakistani police official said Memon was already in poor condition when the U.S. authorities delivered him to Pakistan. CIA Says Torture Not Condoned The Central Intelligence Agency's director of public affairs, Mark Mansfield, said his agency "does not, as a rule, comment on allegations regarding who has, or has not, been in its custody." He added that the U.S. "does not conduct or condone torture." Pakistani officials were unavailable to comment this weekend on whether Memon was tortured in ISI custody. Since his reappearance in April, Pakistani officials have never publicly acknowledged that Memon was in their custody. Pearl was kidnapped Jan. 23, 2002, while investigating a terrorism story in Karachi, and Pakistani authorities say they believe he was murdered about a week later. Pakistani investigators called Memon a prime suspect in the case because he owned a nursery compound where the journalist was held and killed. Witnesses alleged Memon himself drove three men to the compound who subsequently killed Pearl, Pakistani investigators say. Memon, whom Pakistani police described as a prosperous textiles merchant with an export business, was regarded as someone who could have provided details about why the kidnappers decided to kill the journalist. U.S. and Pakistani officials say he was a significant player among many militant groups in Pakistan believed to be conducting abductions. Islamic Charity Group In 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department named Memon a financier of the Al-Akhtar Trust, a self-described Islamic charity based in Karachi, which Treasury called a supporter of al Qaeda's terrorist activities, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Treasury froze the organization's U.S. assets that year. Al Qaeda's captured former chief of operations, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told U.S. military interrogators that he personally killed Pearl in early 2002. But human-rights groups argue he may have confessed under duress. Four other men were convicted in the case. One was sentenced to death and three to life sentences. They are appealing their sentences. Mr. Mohammed hasn't been tried in relation to the case. Pakistani police said they couldn't find Memon for questioning in the months after Pearl's death. Since 2002, a rusty padlock secured the gate of the Pakistani businessman's gray, two-story house in Karachi's middle-class Nazimabad district, a stronghold of an outlawed Islamist militant group called Harkat-ul-Mujahedin. Government and independent investigators looking into Memon's case said they believe he used a false passport to flee Pakistan for Mozambique after the murder of Pearl. From there, he sneaked into South Africa where he had friends, a Pakistani government investigator said. U.S. authorities were ultimately tipped off to his whereabouts by Pakistan, which intercepted a call Memon made to relatives, the investigator said. Legal-aid and human-rights groups in Pakistan that investigated Memon's disappearance said they have been told he was held at a secret CIA detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, before being turned over to the ISI early last year. These groups said they had reconstructed Memon's movements through interviews with Pakistani men jailed with the murder suspect inside Pakistan. Memon returned to Pakistan having "lost all his senses" and looking like "a skeleton," said a Pakistani government investigator involved in the Pearl case. Amina Masood, a human-rights activist in Islamabad, claimed in an April petition to Pakistan's Supreme Court that Memon was tortured while under detention by the ISI. In an interview, Ms. Masood said former inmates imprisoned with Memon told her he was extensively tortured while under ISI custody. "I saw him with my own eyes. His body looked like a 16-year-old boy's. He had completely lost his memory," says Ms. Masood. "It wasn't possible for him to survive. He couldn't recognize his wife, children." Pitting Musharraf Against Judiciary In recent months, Pakistan's missing persons have become a major issue pitting President Pervez Musharraf against his country's judiciary. Former Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who Gen. Musharraf fired this month, had been championing the rights of the disappeared and those being held without facing any formal terrorism charges. Gen. Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3 in part, he asserted, because of moves by the Supreme Court to free suspected terrorists who haven't been formally charged. "The lawyers have released scores of terrorists" who are "human missiles," Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a legal adviser to Gen. Musharraf, said last week in Washington, explaining Pakistan's need for emergency measures. "We are only trying to stabilize the situation in Pakistan." Ms. Masood and other human-rights activists say Gen. Musharraf's moves against Pakistan's judiciary could ruin their efforts to learn the status of hundreds of men missing since 9/11. Since declaring the state of emergency, Gen. Musharraf's security forces have rounded up several prominent human-rights activists who had been sharply critical of his policies and pushed the Supreme Court to take cases involving people secretly detained without trial. Among those detained include: Asma Jahangir, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; as well as the commission's director, I.A. Rehman. --Zahid Hussain contributed to this article. Write to Jay Solomon at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and Steve LeVine at [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119483721533389766.html Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (2) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. 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