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A U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, David Colema Headley was sentenced on Thursday to 35 years in prison for helping to plan the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Headley was also sentenced for attempted conspiracy to attack a Danish newspaper and behead some of its employees.
Headley, 52, had pleaded guilty in March 2010 to conducting surveillance in Mumbai for Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan that carried out a three-day rampage that claimed 166 lives in November 2008 in the Indian metropolis, Reuters reports.
U.S. prosecutors dropped their requests for life imprisonment in exchange for Headley’s testimony in cases against other suspects and cooperation with U.S. intelligence officials.
A Pakistani government intelligence officer and three Lashkar e Tayyiba suspects were indicted by the U.S in 2011.
U.S federal Judge Harry Leinenweber, who presided over the sentencing in the Chicago courtroom, believed Headley deserved life in prison.
But prosecutors requested a shorter sentence in recognition of the “significant value provided by his immediate evidence and extensive cooperation,’’ the Justice Department said.
Headley has already testified against one of his co-defendants, Tahawwur Rana, 52, of Chicago, who was sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for aiding Lashkar e Tayyiba and conspiring to provide material support in the Danish terrorist plot.
Rana, owner of a Chicago immigration consulting firm, had helped Headley arrange his five scouting visits to Mumbai.
Headley used those trips to record video of the buildings that were targeted in the November 2008 siege.
He had been given a global positioning device by the terrorist group to more precisely pinpoint the locations in Mumbai.
The video footage guided the 10 Lashkar attackers as they snucked into the city by boat and attacked a train station, a Jewish centre and the prestigious Taj Mahal hotel, among other targets.
Nine of the terrorists died in the attacks.
In November 2012, the lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab, was executed in India, triggering threats of revenge from Taliban militants in Pakistan.
Headley, who came to the U.S. from Pakistan as a teenager, had changed his name in 2006 from Daood Gilani to avoid drawing suspicion from Indian officials, justice officials said.
In the later Danish plot, Headley conducted surveillance of the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices of the newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in preparation for the attack.
The newspaper had published caricatures in 2005 of the prophet Mohammed, and Islamist militants vowed vengeance.
Headley travelled around Europe trying to recruit participants for the Denmark attack, U.S. justice officials said.
His bosses ordered that the attackers were to behead newspaper employees and roll the heads through the streets of Copenhagen.
The attack was later foiled.
U.S. justice officials said they expected Headley’s future cooperation to include debriefings for intelligence and national security information, and deposition testimony in the U.S. to help foreign judicial proceedings – either by video, letters or interrogation.
A U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, David Colema Headley was sentenced on Thursday to 35 years in prison for helping to plan the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Headley was also sentenced for attempted conspiracy to attack a Danish newspaper and behead some of its employees.
Headley, 52, had pleaded guilty in March 2010 to conducting surveillance in Mumbai for Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan that carried out a three-day rampage that claimed 166 lives in November 2008 in the Indian metropolis, Reuters reports.
U.S. prosecutors dropped their requests for life imprisonment in exchange for Headley’s testimony in cases against other suspects and cooperation with U.S. intelligence officials.
A Pakistani government intelligence officer and three Lashkar e Tayyiba suspects were indicted by the U.S in 2011.
U.S federal Judge Harry Leinenweber, who presided over the sentencing in the Chicago courtroom, believed Headley deserved life in prison.
But prosecutors requested a shorter sentence in recognition of the “significant value provided by his immediate evidence and extensive cooperation,’’ the Justice Department said.
Headley has already testified against one of his co-defendants, Tahawwur Rana, 52, of Chicago, who was sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for aiding Lashkar e Tayyiba and conspiring to provide material support in the Danish terrorist plot.
Rana, owner of a Chicago immigration consulting firm, had helped Headley arrange his five scouting visits to Mumbai.
Headley used those trips to record video of the buildings that were targeted in the November 2008 siege.
He had been given a global positioning device by the terrorist group to more precisely pinpoint the locations in Mumbai.
The video footage guided the 10 Lashkar attackers as they snucked into the city by boat and attacked a train station, a Jewish centre and the prestigious Taj Mahal hotel, among other targets.
Nine of the terrorists died in the attacks.
In November 2012, the lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab, was executed in India, triggering threats of revenge from Taliban militants in Pakistan.
Headley, who came to the U.S. from Pakistan as a teenager, had changed his name in 2006 from Daood Gilani to avoid drawing suspicion from Indian officials, justice officials said.
In the later Danish plot, Headley conducted surveillance of the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices of the newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in preparation for the attack.
The newspaper had published caricatures in 2005 of the prophet Mohammed, and Islamist militants vowed vengeance.
Headley travelled around Europe trying to recruit participants for the Denmark attack, U.S. justice officials said.
His bosses ordered that the attackers were to behead newspaper employees and roll the heads through the streets of Copenhagen.
The attack was later foiled.
U.S. justice officials said they expected Headley’s future cooperation to include debriefings for intelligence and national security information, and deposition testimony in the U.S. to help foreign judicial proceedings – either by video, letters or interrogation.
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