KARACHI -- A lawyer for the British-born Pakistani militant sentenced to death over the kidnap and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl on Friday lodged an appeal against his conviction.

Abdul Waheed Katpar, the lawyer defending Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, filed the appeal in the Sindh High Court in Karachi.

"The appeal has been filed in time," Katpar told reporters outside the court. "I hope justice will be done. It is an excellent case for an appeal and two judges will hear the petition and I am 100 percent sure that I will be successful."

An anti-terrorism court on Monday found Omar guilty of engineering the kidnap and murder of ***The Wall Street Journal*** correspondent and sentenced him to death by hanging.

Three other Islamic militants were found guilty of abetting him and were given life sentences. Their appeals were filed on Wednesday. In his petition Katpar asked the court to set aside the "impugned judgement of conviction and sentence" and to free Omar "as he is totally innocent."

"The conviction in question was unwarranted and the sentence awarded to the appellant is wholly illegal," stated the petition, a copy of which was received by AFP. "The prosecution evidence has failed to establish the kidnapping for ransom and murder, hence the conviction as well as the sentence are liable to be set aside, being totally contrary to the law and facts."