ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A regional Pakistani court on Thursday overturned the convictions of the men involved in the killing of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The ruling by two judges on the High Court of Sindh province can still be appealed to Pakistan's Supreme Court.
"As per the court's judgment, Omar Saeed Sheikh has been found guilty of kidnapping and not of murder. The accused was in jail for 20 years," the defendants' lawyer Khawaja Naveed told The Washington Post.
Saeed had been sentenced to death for Pearl's murder, but now with just a seven-year sentence for kidnapping, he could be released, given the 18 years he has already served.
The three other men convicted with Saeed - Fahad Naseem, a computer expert; Salman Saqib, a religious activist; and Sheikh Adil, a police officer - were ordered released by the court.
The kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in January 2002 shocked the world at the time. He had been in Pakistan researching the connection between a radical Islamic preacher and Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up an airliner with explosives in his shoes.
Pearl was told he was meeting with the radical cleric when instead he was kidnapped by militants organized by Saeed, a British-born Pakistani. According to the Center of Public Integrity's Pearl Project, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed then took over the operation and filmed the beheading of Pearl for al-Qaida propaganda purposes.
The murder has been seen as the beginning of a trend targeting journalists in conflict zones.
In 2014, the radical Islamic State group filmed the beheadings of a number of its hostages, including journalist James Foley.
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The Washington Post's Paul Schemm in Dubai contributed to this report.
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