Daniel Pearl

Daniel Pearl

Daniel Pearl was working as the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, based in Mumbai, India. He was kidnapped when he went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid and al-Qaeda. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin, was sentenced to death by hanging for Pearl’s abduction and murder in 2002 but his conviction was overturned by a Pakistani court in the summer of 2020.

About Daniel Pearl in brief

Summary Daniel PearlDaniel Pearl was working as the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, based in Mumbai, India. He was kidnapped when he went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid and al-Qaeda. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin, was sentenced to death by hanging for Pearl’s abduction and murder in 2002 but his conviction was overturned by a Pakistani court in the summer of 2020. In March 2007, at a closed military hearing in Guantánamo Bay, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed that he had personally beheaded Pearl. Researchers have also connected Al-Qaeda member Saif al-Adel with the kidnapping. Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, to Judea Pearl and Ruth. His father is an Israeli of Polish Jewish descent and his mother is an Iraqi Jew whose family was saved from the Farhud by Muslim neighbors. Danny, as he was known throughout his life, attended Stanford University from 1981 to 1985, where he stood out as a Communication major with Phi Beta Kappa honors. His articles covered a range of topics, such as the October 1994 story of a Stradivarius violin allegedly found on a highway on-ramp and a June 2000 story about Iranian pop music. In 1999 in Paris, Pearl met and married French journalist Mariane van Neyenhoff, a former reporter and columnist for Glamour. Their son, Adam Daniel Pearl, was born on May 28, 2002, approximately four months after Pearl’s death.

The Pearls settled in Mumbai after Daniel Pearl was made Southeast Asia bureau chief of TheWall Street Journal. They traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, which he used as a base for reporting on the United States’ War on Terrorism following the 911 attacks by Al- Qaeda terrorists in 2001 in the U.S. The group claimed Pearl was a spy and—using a Hotmail e-mail address—sent the United.Signed the United Nations a list of demands, including the freeing of all Pakistani detainees, and the release of a halted shipment of F-16 fighter jets. Photos of Daniel Pearl’s severed head and decomposed body were found in ten pieces, along with an identifying jacket, and buried in a shallow grave at Gadap, about 30 miles of Karachi. On May 16, 2003, Pearl was beheaded by the terrorists and buried with a newspaper attached to his head. His editor and wife did not respond to public pleas for release of the journalist by his editor and his wife Mariane Van Neyenhoffs. The family moved to Mumbai after he was killed and lived in Mumbai for the rest of his life. Daniel Pearl died on January 23, 2002 at the age of 29. He is survived by his wife, Mariane, a son, and a daughter. He also leaves behind a wife and a son-in-law, Adam, who lives in New York City with his wife and two step-daughters. He has a brother and a step-daughter.