KATHMANDU: Pakistan's Supreme Court today ordered the release of the man convicted of beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl.

The court overturned the death sentence handed to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, convicted of kidnapping and murdering the US journalist. According to the Washington Post, the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday followed a move by a provincial court last year to overturn Saeed's sentence.

The Post quoted Pearl's family laywer Faisal Siddiqi as saying that the decision has left Pearl's family in complete shock. He called the decision 'a complete travesty of justice.'

Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, had gone to Pakistan to cover story on militants in Pakistan in the aftermath of twin-tower attack of September 11, 2001, in the United States.

While covering the news, Pearl was told that he was meeting with a radical cleric when instead he was kidnapped, held for days, and beheaded in 2002.