KARACHI, Pakistan -- The chief prosecutor in the case of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl said he would file charges today against the alleged mastermind and three others accused in the journalist's kidnapping and murder.

The indictment will charge Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three accomplices with murder, kidnapping, and terrorism in the death of Pearl, the newspaper's 38-year-old South Asia correspondent, Chief Prosecutor Raja Quereshi said Thursday.

Sufficient evidence

"We have not found the body, but it will not affect the case," Quereshi said. "There is other evidence which is sufficient for his conviction."

Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi on Jan. 23 while researching links between Pakistani extremists and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December with explosives in his shoe on the flight between Paris and Miami.

Last month, a videotape received by the U.S. Consulate in Karachi confirmed Pearl had been murdered. Though some suspects remain at large, Quereshi described his case as "very strong."

Suspicious e-mail

Evidence against the men includes e-mail linking some of the suspects to Pearl's abduction, the confessions of two of the alleged accomplices and the testimony of a taxi driver who said he drove Pearl to a meeting and saw him shake hands with Saeed before getting into a car.

However, the lawyer for the three alleged accomplices, Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, said that much of the evidence against Saeed rests on the confessions of two of his clients -- confessions he claims will be retracted at Friday's session at the Sindh High Court.

A federal grand jury in New Jersey also indicted Saeed on charges of conspiring to take Pearl hostage and then kidnapping him. Since the kidnapping resulted in Pearl's death, Saeed could face the death penalty if brought to the United States and convicted.