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Wife Appeals for Missing Reporter's Life
Tuesday, February 5, 2002
By Afzal Nadeem
Associated Press Writer

Hoax e-mails which purported to come from Pearl's kidnappers, including one which claimed his body had been dumped in a Karachi graveyard, have also complicated the investigation.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- AP
The wife of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whose captors have remained silent since they threatened to kill him, issued an impassioned appeal yesterday for his life and said she was willing to die in his place.

Pearl's abductors last released a photo of him Wednesday, with a threat to kill him in 24 hours. An earlier e-mail, which included a photo of the reporter with a gun to his head, demanded that Washington return Pakistani prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial in Pakistan. The Bush administration has ruled out any negotiations.

Mariane Pearl, who is six months pregnant with the couple's first child, urged the kidnappers to contact her.

"Don't harm an innocent man because you're just going to create one more misery,'' she said in Karachi in a BBC television interview. "Using Daniel as a symbol and all of this is completely wrong, completely wrong.''

"If anyone's going to give his life to save him it's me,'' she said. "Please make contact with me -- I'm ready.''
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2002 © The Associated Press.

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