The retrial was held over three sessions in November 2003. Shaikh did not use a lawyer to defend him because of threats to his lawyers by the extremist mullahs and the Pakistani Taliban. He defended himself after secretly studying law during his 3 years incarceration. On 21 November 2003, the trial judge acquitted Shaikh on legal grounds, and ordered that he be released. Commenting on the judgement, Shaikh explained: "The judge accepted my legal arguments and found the charges against me to be baseless. My accusers, two mullahs and some Islamist students, had lied while under the oath on the Holy Koran." He described his ordeal as: "Islamic terrorism through the abuse of law and of the state apparatus" No case was registered against the mullahs and Islamic witnesses who made false accusations and gave false evidence. He was not compensated for millions of dollars he lost in the trial either.