FOUR men acquitted of the murder of Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearl last week have been rearrested in Pakistan just a day after their sentences were overturned in the country’s appeal court.

They will be held for a period of three months after an appeal against their acquittals amid concern the men may act “against the interest of the country”.

The decision to release the men came after judges found that there was insufficient evidence to charge them with masterminding the 2002 beheading of Mr Pearl in Karachi.

The US journalist travelled to Pakistan to research Islamist groups shortly after the September 11 terror attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre.

Ahmed Omar Saeed was sentenced to death but has always maintained he was not in Karachi at the time Mr Pearl was executed.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the US-based National Writers Union (NWU) jointly demanded justice for Mr Pearl.

National Writers Union (NWU) said: “This turn of events not only adds Daniel Pearl's name to the list of unsolved murdered journalists but reopens an old wound for journalists everywhere, maybe even more in Pakistan where journalists continue to pay a very high price.”