KARACHI, 10 March — A court recorded testimony yesterday linking militant Sheikh Omar to slain US reporter Daniel Pearl’s abduction, as the defense lawyer protested he had not been granted a private meeting with his client.

The British-born militant, who has admitted he masterminded the kidnapping, was brought before the city magistrate here in an armored car surrounded by police vans and dozens of armed police.

The court formally recorded a statement by a taxi driver who said he saw Omar whisk the Wall Street Journal correspondent away in a car from a Karachi restaurant on Jan. 23.

Taxi driver Nasir Abbas told the magistrate under oath that he had driven Pearl to a restaurant called “The Village” on Jan. 23, where Pearl met Omar and shook hands with him. The two later sat in a white car and sped away to unknown place in the company of three others. Omar’s father, a businessman in England, had flown in earlier from UK to take care of his son. Omar’s lawyer, Saiful Malook, said he refused to cross-examine the taxi driver in the closed-door session because he had not been allowed a private meeting with his client.

“I was only allowed a four-to five-minute meeting with Omar which was not enough and that too was in the presence of the magistrate. So I refused to cross-examine the witness,” Malook said.

“Omar has told me that the investigation officer did not have evidence against him and they were bringing fake evidence,” he said.

Malook said his request for a private meeting with Omar was turned down by the magistrate, who told him to ask permission from a higher-level district court.

With courts closed today, the application will have to be made next week.

Police Thursday allowed Omar, who had been unrepresented, to seek a lawyer. Omar is in police custody until Tuesday, after which authorities plan to file murder charges.

Omar, a 29-year-old former student at the London School of Economics, told an anti-terrorism court Feb. 14 that he masterminded Pearl’s abduction and that the journalist was dead.

Pearl’s widow Mariane, who is seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child, was to hold a memorial service for him with family and friends today in Los Angeles. The United States is seeking to extradite Omar, who is also implicated in the 1994 kidnapping of an American in India.

President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday the request was being examined and that no decision had been made yet. Omar holds both British and Pakistani nationalities. Britain has said it would not object to his extradition.

Two Pakistanis who allegedly sent e-mails of the reporter in captivity, Fahad Naseem and Salman Saquib, are in judicial custody pending charges.