US Mumbai plotter sentenced to 35 years
2013-01-24 20:48
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Chicago - David Coleman Headley, who helped plot the
devastating 2008 Mumbai attacks before agreeing to become an informer, was
sentenced by a US judge on Thursday to 35 years in prison.
Headley, 52, had pleaded guilty to scoping out Mumbai on
behalf of Pakistani militants and to a second plot to attack a Danish
newspaper, striking a deal to avoid the death penalty.
"The sentence I impose, I'm hopeful it will keep Mr
Headley under lock and key for the rest of his natural life," Judge Harry
Leinenweber said.
He added that it would have been much easier to impose
the death penalty, saying "that's what you deserve," but that he
opted for the 35-year sentence after a motion by the government, saying it was
"not a light sentence”.
Heavily-armed militants rampaged through Mumbai in
November 2008, killing 166 people and wounding hundreds more over nearly three
days of carnage in a prolonged assault on the Indian financial capital.
But US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had urged leniency,
telling the judge that Headley's decision to become an informant "saved
lives”.
In a plot that reads like a spy thriller, Headley spent
two years casing out Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbour
to find landing sites for the attackers and befriending Bollywood stars as part
of his cover.
Prosecutors described it as a supporting but
"essential" role.
The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat
and American woman, Headley's Western appearance and US passport helped him
slip under the radar for much of the seven years he spent working with militant
groups.
And while he quickly turned informant to save his own
skin, prosecutors said Headley was committed to the cause of terrorism.
He was so eager to attack Denmark's Jyllands-Posten
newspaper over its publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad that he
began working seriously on that plot two months before the Mumbai attack.
He also had Bollywood and one of India's most sacred
Hindu temples in his sights as he began plotting a second India attack during a
March 2009 surveillance trip.
