KARACHI, 1 May — The trial of four men accused of the kidnap and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl is to move to a new venue after claims the court and prosecutors could face terrorist attack, lawyers said yesterday.

A high court has ordered the trial be shifted from Karachi, the southern port city where Pearl was abducted, 160 km north to Hyderabad, chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi told reporters.

The trial is now set to resume on May 3 in Hyderabad’s central prison and will be presided over by new Judge Ali Ashraf Shah, Qureshi said. Shah will be the third judge to hear the case since the closed-door trial commenced on April 15.

Prosecutors demanded a new venue after claiming their team had received telephone calls threatening attacks on lawyers and the makeshift courtroom inside Karachi prison.

"There was a definite plan to blow up the Karachi prison according to the intelligence reports. Now the shifting of the trial will make a difference," Qureshi said.

"The threats are of a serious nature, including intelligence reports that the jail could be blown up if this trial proceeds."

Defense lawyer Abdul Waheed Katpar said the change of the venue would have no impact on the case and dismissed prosecution claims as a stalling tactic.

"It will not make any difference to the defense as we have already succeeded in breaking the prosecution case and breaking the prosecution witnesses," he said.

"Wherever they will take the case, we will be there. "The prosecutor just wants to delay the trial. They are coming up with all kinds of excuses. First, they wanted a change of the judge and now a change of venue as well," he said.

Proceedings were halted last week when prosecutors filed a petition asking for the presiding judge to be replaced, complaining he had failed to stop defendants making "threatening gestures" to witnesses in court.

An earlier judge was replaced when defense lawyers questioned his impartiality. The accused face execution on charges of murder, kidnapping and terrorist activities in connection with the Wall Street Journal reporter’s Jan. 23 abduction and subsequent execution.

All four, including alleged mastermind Omar Sheikh, a British-born militant, deny the charges.