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The widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has dropped a lawsuit against al Qaeda, other groups and a Pakistani bank over her husband's kidnap, torture and murder, court records show.
Lawyers acting for Mariane Pearl filed the lawsuit in July. It sought unspecified damages against "those terrorists, terrorist organisations and the supporting charitable and banking organisations for the senseless kidnapping, torture and murder of Daniel Pearl".
A notice of voluntary dismissal was filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan that stated Pearl had decided not to pursue the case.
"The withdrawal was done for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit," said a spokesperson for Pearl's lawyers Motley Rice.
Daniel Pearl, the Journal's South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 while seeking an interview with suspected Islamist militants. After several days in captivity he was beheaded on video.
Among those sued was Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted and sentenced to death in a Pakistan court for his role in the murder.
Pearl also sued Habib Bank, accusing it of knowingly conducting financial transactions for charities linked to extremist groups. The bank denied this.
