Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of a British-Pakistani militant extremist who had been the prime suspect in the beheading of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. The ruling left the victim’s family devastated.

A militant extremist previously convicted for the murder of an American journalist may soon walk free after Pakistan’s highest court rejected a government request to suspend the decision of a lower court that cleared him of the crime while he is still in detention.