The Wall Street Journal - 19.03.2020

A12| Thursday, March 19, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

KARACHI, Pakistan—A Paki-
stani court is weighing the ap-
peal of a British national con-
victed and sentenced to death
nearly 18 years ago in the mur-
der of Wall Street Journal re-
porter Daniel Pearl, lawyers in-
volved in the proceedings said.
The tribunal in Kara-
chi heard arguments earlier
this month in the case of
Omar Saeed Sheikh, who re-
ceived death sentences in
2002 for convictions on three
separate crimes—kidnapping
for ransom, murder and ter-
rorism. It could issue a ruling
in the next few weeks, the
lawyers said. Any decision
could then be appealed to Pak-
istan’s Supreme Court.
Mr. Pearl, the Journal’s
South Asia bureau chief, was
killed while reporting on Is-
lamic extremist circles in Paki-
stan in the aftermath of

WORLD NEWS

BYANNM.SIMMONS

Russia Firms

Its Links

With Crimea

WORLD WATCH

ISRAEL

Parliament Adjourned

In Clash Over Powers

Israel’s parliament speaker, a
loyalist of Prime Minister Benja-
min Netanyahu, adjourned the
legislative body, blocking law-
makers’ efforts to formally ques-
tion Mr. Netanyahu’s response to
the coronavirus outbreak.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edel-
stein, a member of Mr. Netan-
yahu’s Likud party, announced
the move three minutes after
the start of Wednesday’s ses-
sion. He said the spread of the
virus justified his decision to
suspend parliamentary functions
at least until Monday.

Members of the opposition

bloc headed by Benny Gantz, a

former army chief, accused Mr.

Netanyahu of exploiting the pub-

lic-health crisis to cling to power.

Mr. Netanyahu, facing trial on

bribery, fraud and breach of

trust charges, has led a care-

taker government through three

inconclusive parliamentary elec-

tions since mid-2019.

Mr. Gantz’s centrist Blue and

White party gathered the most

backing from other parties in

the latest election, on March 2,

to form a government. Although

he has been unable to do that,

Mr. Gantz has majority support

in parliament to establish com-

mittees aimed at overseeing the

prime minister’s actions.

Mr. Netanyahu’s sweeping

measures against the coronavi-

rus in recent days have shut Is-

rael’s borders to all except resi-

dents and citizens, closed

schools, gyms, restaurants, bars

and many other businesses and

allowed cellphone data collection

to track coronavirus cases. His

corruption trial was meant to

begin Tuesday but was delayed

until May after the Justice Min-

ister, a Likud party member and

close ally of the prime minister,

shut down the courts.

Opposition lawmakers and

privacy experts say parliamen-

tary oversight would serve as a

check on the sweeping powers

Mr. Netanyahu has unleashed to

fight the coronavirus, particularly

the use of cellphone data.

President Reuven Rivlin, also

a member of the Likud party,

criticized Mr. Edelstein’s decision

and urged him to keep parlia-

ment open.

—Felicia Schwartz

NEW ZEALAND

Law Decriminalizes

Abortion Procedure

New Zealand lawmakers

passed a landmark bill that

treats abortion as a health issue

rather than a crime.

Until Wednesday’s vote, the

procedure was still regulated un-

der the Crimes Act, requiring

women to prove to a doctor

that their pregnancy presented a

danger to their physical or men-

tal health before they could have

an abortion.

Justice Minister Andrew Little

said that requirement forced

most women to lie about their

mental health and caused un-

necessary delays, which added

health risks.

The new law removes those

obstacles, allowing women who

are up to 20 weeks pregnant to

get an abortion and those over

20 weeks to get one with ap-

proval from a health practitioner.

Lawmakers voted 68 to 51 in

favor of the bill.

Conservative lawmaker Sim-

eon Brown, who opposed it, said

an unborn child had a heartbeat

and felt pain, and should be con-

sidered a person who is treated

with dignity and respect.

Jackie Edmond, the chief ex-

ecutive of Family Planning, New

Zealand’s largest referrer of

women to abortion services, said

she was thrilled with the vote

and that women were finally be-

ing trusted to make their own

health decisions.

“It’s fantastic Parliament has

addressed something that they

should have addressed 40 years

ago,” Ms. Edmond said.

When Jacinda Ardern was

elected prime minister in 2017

she followed up on a campaign

promise to bring the issue to a

vote.

—Associated Press

Six years after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, the peninsula is ever more tightly bound to Moscow. A mural painting of President

Vladimir Putin is shown in Crimea’s capital. Below, construction of the Tavrida highway, which will connect the cities of Kerch and Sevastopol.

the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist at-

tacks in the U.S. and the sub-

sequent U.S. invasion of Af-

ghanistan in pursuit of Osama

bin Laden and his al Qaeda

network. He was abducted on

Jan. 23, 2002, and beheaded

days later.

Mr. Sheikh, who had com-

municated with Mr. Pearl for a

couple of weeks before his ab-

duction, was arrested and

found guilty by a Paki-

stani antiterrorism court.

Three alleged accomplices

were given life sentences.

Their appeals were also heard

this month.

In the hearing in March, Mr.

Sheikh and his accused accom-

plices sought to have the con-

victions overturned based on

flaws their lawyers say exist

with the evidence, said Rai

Bashir Ahmed, a lawyer for one

of the accused in the recent

proceedings and also a defense

lawyer in the 2002 trial.

Prosecutors rebutted those

arguments and said Mr.

Sheikh’s death sentences

should be upheld, lawyers

said. Prosecutors also argued

for death sentences in the

cases of the convicted accom-

plices.

Mr. Sheikh’s lawyer, Mah-

mood Sheikh, declined to

comment. Lawyers for the

other defendants said their

clients are innocent.

According to testimony in

Mr. Sheikh’s 2002 trial, Mr.

Sheikh met Mr. Pearl and

promised to introduce him to

a religious leader he wanted to

meet. Later, Mr. Sheikh, who

used a pseudonym in his inter-

actions with Mr. Pearl, called

the journalist to Karachi

to see the cleric there, accord-

ing to the court’s findings.

After Mr. Pearl stepped out

of his taxi at a restaurant

where he was told to meet, he

was put into a car in which

Mr. Sheikh was seated, ac-

cording to the court’s findings.

The reporter then disap-

peared, according to testi-

mony at the trial.

The court found that ran-

som demands were emailed by

Mr. Sheikh and his accom-

plices, demanding better treat-

ment for prisoners held by the

U.S. at Guantanamo Bay prison

camp and for Pakistan to re-

ceive some U.S. jet fighters, in

return for letting Mr. Pearl go.

In July 2002, the Pakistani

court convicted Mr. Sheikh of

orchestrating the plot, ruling

he be hanged. Soon after, Mr.

Sheikh lodged his appeal.

Mr. Sheikh’s parents immi-

grated from Pakistan to the

U.K., where he largely grew

up. He later returned to South

Asia, where he linked up with

Pakistani militant groups, ac-

cording to Pakistani offi-

cials. He was jailed in India in

1994 for helping to kidnap a

group of Western tourists in

the Indian-controlled part of

the disputed Kashmir region.

He was released in 1999 by In-

dia as part of negotiations

with Pakistani militants who

had hijacked an Indian plane.

U.S. officials believe that

Mr. Pearl’s abduction drew the

attention of al Qaeda’s opera-

tions chief, a Pakistani, Khalid

Sheikh Mohammed, who was

also the chief planner of

the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Mo-

hammed was captured in Paki-

stan in 2003 and transferred

to Guantanamo.

There, Mr. Mohammed—

subjected more than 180 times

to an interrogation technique

known as “waterboarding”

that human-rights groups re-

gard as torture—confessed in

2007 to killing Mr. Pearl, ac-

cording to documents released

by the U.S.

Mr. Mohammed is due to

stand trial next year for his al-

leged involvement in the Sept.

11 attacks. He hasn’t been

charged with any crimes re-

lated to the killing of Mr.

Pearl. Mr. Mohammed didn’t

figure in the arguments used

in Mr. Sheikh’s appeal in Kara-

chi this month, according to

lawyers in the case.

BYSAEEDSHAH

Man Convicted of Killing Journal Reporter Awaits Appeal

SIMFEROPOL, Crimea—A
ritzy modern airport, new
thermal power plants and a
bridge linking Crimea to the
Russian mainland are among a
raft of Russian-funded devel-
opment projects that have ce-
mented Moscow’s control of
the territory.
Six years after Russia
seized Crimea from Ukraine,
the Black Sea peninsula, once
a haven of summer homes and
health sanitariums for the So-
viet elite and proletariat alike,
is ever more tightly bound to
Moscow, which now covers
almost 70% of the territory’s
budget.
Indeed, as it pulls Cri-
mea closer, Moscow continues
to insist that it will never re-
turn the peninsula, a resolve
that has drawn widespread in-
ternational condemnation.
That has also undercut
Ukrainian President Volod-
ymyr Zelensky’s pledge to re-
claim the territory, threaten-
ing to keep Russia and Ukraine
at odds and undermining long-
term stability in this region.
And as long as Ukraine and
Russia are feuding, the U.S.
and Europe, which have sanc-
tioned Russia for its aggres-
sion against Ukraine, will re-
main embroiled in the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin has said he re-
gards Crimea as “an insepara-
ble part of Russia.” Until 1954,
the peninsula, renowned for
its beaches, lush vegetation
and czars’ palaces, had been
under Moscow’s control since
1783, when the Russian Empire
annexed it from Ottoman rule.
Mr. Zelensky, who has
promised to resolve the con-
flict with Russia, has de-
scribed the return of Cri-
mea, which was transferred
under Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev to Ukraine, then a
Soviet republic, as “an indis-
putable part of [Ukraine’s] na-
tional idea.” When the U.S.S.R.
collapsed and Ukraine gained
its independence in 1991, it
kept the peninsula.
Mr. Putin arrived Wednes-
day in Crimea for a two-day
visit to hold meetings with
leaders of the republic and
members of the public. At an

initial appearance in Sevasto-

pol, he congratulated Crime-

ans on the anniversary of the

peninsula joining Russia,

which he described as a “very

important event” that took

place six years ago.

At the museum of the Kon-

stantinovskaya Battery, a 19th-

century fortress built to block

the entry of enemy ships to

Sevastopol Bay, Mr. Putin pre-

sented awards to the builders

of the 12-mile Crimean road

and rail bridge that links Cri-

mea and other Russian re-

gions, and promises to boost

tourism and cargo traffic.

The Kremlin leader said the

venue of the awards ceremony

was appropriate because it

symbolized Russia’s “military

glory” and “the invincibility of

Russian weapons and the Rus-

sian spirit,” he said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry

slammed Mr. Putin’s visit to

Crimea as “a cynical and defi-

ant neglect of the Russian side

of universally recognized prin-

ciples and norms of interna-

tional law.”

“Crimea and Sevastopol are

and will continue to be an in-

tegral part of Ukraine’s sover-

eign territory,” said the state-

ment, published on the

ministry’s website.

Irina Kiviko, Crimea’s fi-

nance minister, says the re-

gion’s economy has more than

doubled since 2014, while in-

dustry and farming are flour-

ishing in this fertile region,

approximately the size of Mas-

sachusetts.

There are new schools, and

neighborhoods of Simfero-

pol, the capital, are peppered

with construction of apart-

ment buildings. If it weren’t

for sanctions, Crimea would

have a “real boom,” said Vladi-

mir Konstantinov, chairman

of Crimea’s state council.

“It’s fantastic what has hap-

pened since Crimea returned

to Russia,” he told The Wall

Street Journal. “I couldn’t

imagine this kind of develop-

ment in my wildest dreams. Of

course, we have some issues,

but we are back on our Moth-

erland.”

Sanctions helped drive

away financial institutions

such as Visa and Mastercard

and Western hotel chains,

while multinational companies

have avoided Crimea since

2014.

Russia has struggled to fill

the gap. Only three banks, all

Russian, currently offer full

banking services, and all are

under sanctions. The Russian

government has created a new

payment-card system, called

Mir, which is mostly accepted

by domestic companies.

The new airport in Simfero-

pol, which features a recre-

ation area and landscape park,

offers flights only to Russian

destinations, so international

travelers must first fly via

Moscow or journey more than

12 hours to Kyiv by road and

rail. Foreign destinations from

Simferopol used to include Is-

tanbul, Tel Aviv and Frankfurt.

The Crimean government

has struggled to furnish all of

its residents with water, ever

since mainland Ukraine, which

provided most of the territory

with water, cut supplies. And

although the availability of

goods and services is adequate

and salaries for Crimeans have

generally increased, the cost

of living has surged.

The U.N. has accused Mos-

cow of “multiple and grave vi-

olations” of basic rights

of Crimea’s citizens, including

arbitrary detentions, torture

and the forced disappearance

of Ukrainian journalists, Or-

thodox church members, civil-

rights activists and individuals

from Crimea’s suppressed Ta-

tar community—a Muslim eth-

nic minority who are indige-

nous to the peninsula.

“Up to 200,000 people have

been approached, intimidated

or interrogated by [Russia’s

Federal Security Service]

within the last six years of oc-

cupation,” Melinda Haring,

deputy director of the Atlantic

Council’s Eurasia Center, testi-

fied at a congressional hearing

in January.

The Russian government

defends its seizure of Crimea,

pointing in part to the eco-

nomic benefits of tourism,

which it claims has doubled

since 2014.

A man who would only give

his name as Grigory stood on

the embankment in Crimea’s

port city of Sevastopol hawk-

ing boat rides. “Everyone

thought it would be better un-

der Russia,” he said. “But

many small businesses here

have been lost.”

Russia has boosted its

investments in Crimea since it

annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Investment in fixed

assets in Crimea

Source: Ministry of Economic Development of

Republic of Crimea

Note: 1 billion rubles = $12.29 million. 2019

data is preliminary.

300billion rubles

0

50

100

150

200

250

2014 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’

Omar Saeed Sheikh, sentenced to

death in 2002 in the killing of The

Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl.

ZIA MAZHAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS