Mumbai 2008 attack plotter sentenced to 35 years

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Friday, January 25, 2013

The burned dome of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai.
Image: Nichalp.

A Pakistani-American has been sentenced today to 35 years in prison for assisting and helping plan the 2008 attack in Mumbai leaving dead 166 people.

The 52 year old, David Coleman Headley, pleaded guilty in a US federal court in Chicago and co-operated in order to stop the death penalty and being extradited to India for trial. RK Singh, the Indian Home Secretary indicated that the Government would still be requesting his extradition to India.

The Mumbai attackers arrived via boat on Novemeber 26, 2008, bringing with them grenades, automatic weapons and hit multiple targets including the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station and the famous Taj Mahal Hotel. David Headley's scouting and information gathering had helped to enable the operation by the 10 gunmen from the Pakistani militant group Laskhar-e-Taiba. The attack put a huge strain on relations between India and Pakistan.

"I don't have any faith in Mr Headley when he says he's a changed person and believes in the American way of life," said the sentencing judge, Harry Leinenweber.



Sources