Pearl killing: Khalid146;s claim to be used in Sheikh146;s defence

Rai Bashir, a lawyer for Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 in Pearl8217;s slaying, said he will use Mohammed8217;s testimony as evidence that his client did not kill Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.

8220;What we were saying for so many years in our trial, in the appeal, is that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is innocent and he has not committed that murder,8221; Bashir said.

8220;He has not abducted Pearl, and he, along with his co-accused, is innocent,8221; he said. 8220;But now we are happy that this version has been verified by the Pentagon after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.8221; He did not say when he would officially file Mohammed8217;s claim as evidence in the appeal.

According to a Pentagon transcript released on Thursday, Mohammed said: 8220;I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, Pakistan.8221;

Pearl was abducted in January 2002 in Karachi, while he was researching a story on Islamic militancy. Months later his body was found with his throat slit in a shallow ditch on the city8217;s outskirts.