DATE=03/22/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-287850

TITLE=PAKISTAN / U-S JOURNALIST (S)

BYLINE=AYAZ GUL

DATELINE=ISLAMABAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Prosecutors in Pakistan have formally charged four Islamic militants with kidnapping and slaying American journalist Daniel Pearl. From Islamabad, Ayaz Gul reports.

TEXT: The four defendants were brought to an anti-terrorism court in Karachi under tight security. They included the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping plot, Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh.

Chief Prosecutor Raja Qureshi presented the charges in the court.

///QURESHI ACT///

We have filed the prosecution evidence in the case of the prosecution, and now the court has to examine what the prosecution proposes to produce on record, whereafter a charge will be framed by the court.

///END ACT///

Mr. Qureshi says that seven other people named as con-conspirators in the case remain at large.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted in Karachi on January 23 while he was investigating links between Pakistani militants and al - Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Pearl's death was confirmed last month, after his kidnappers released a video tape showing his murder. Mr. Pearls body has not been found. (SIGNED)

NEB/AG/RH/KBK