I don't have any faith in Headley when he says he is a changed person now, says judge
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley was on Thursday sentenced to 35 years in prison by a U.S. court for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The sentence will be followed by five years supervised release.
While the U.S. government admitted the “deplorable” nature of his role in the 26/11 attacks, the prosecution had pressed for a sentence of 30-35 years under a plea bargain with Headley in return for his cooperation. The death penalty and extradition options were dropped.
Pronouncing the sentence here, U.S. federal district court judge Harry Leinenweber said he had to consider that Headley had committed numerous crimes in the past, confessed to them and received lenient sentences.
Headley’s defence team argued for mitigation based on his past drug addiction and the need to set an appropriate sentence to encourage cooperation from future defendants in a similar position.
Under his deal with the U.S. government, Headley supplied information on other terror suspects, which, prosecutors said, helped them investigate and bring criminal charges against co-defendant Tahawwur Rana, Ilyas Kashmiri and several Pakistan-based operatives.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there is no Federal parole and defendants must serve at least 85% of their sentence.
In pronouncing the sentence, Justice Leinenweber said: “Mr. Headley is a terrorist.”
“There is little question that life imprisonment would be an appropriate punishment for Mr. Headley’s incredibly serious crimes but for the significant value provided by his immediate and extensive cooperation.”
PTI adds:
The judge said: “He commits crime, cooperates and then gets rewarded for the cooperation. No matter what I do, it is not going to deter terrorists. Unfortunately, terrorists do not care for it. I do not have any faith in Mr. Headley when he says that he is a changed person now.
“I do believe that it is my duty to protect the public from Mr. Headley and ensure that he does not get into any further terrorist activities. Recommending 35 years is not a right sentence.
“I will accept the government motion 35 years and sentence of 35 years ...”
Asked if he wanted to make a statement, Headley said: “No your honour …”
The judge said: “The sentence I impose, I’m hopeful, it will keep Mr. Headley under lock and key for the rest of his natural life.”
He said it would have been much easier to impose the death penalty. “That’s what you deserve.”
A week ago, Justice Leinenweber had sentenced Rana to 14 years of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and planning terror attack against a Danish newspaper in Copenhagen.
Yes good that Daoud Gilani aka Mr headley will spend most of the rest of his life in a US prison. India would have dithered and delayed a trial with all the bureaucracy involved in the Indian courts, with appeal after appeal by the terrorist. The Indian people would have paid for that via their taxes. Secondly, with all the information he has provided about the terror set up in pakistan with the ISI, Pak military and terror groups working hand in hand, will the masterminds and controllers be brought to justice via the International Criminal Courts?
India and USA need to heavily push for this and internationalise the issue of terror emanating from Pakistan.
India should work with Israeli-US citizen victim's family to get him extradited.
Prosecutors hae said : "This is not a wannabe terrorist," Karen Greenberg, director of
the Center on National Security at Fordham University, told the Chicago Tribune.
"Headley is very unusual in terms of prominence inside an international terrorist
network."
Considering India's tract record on past terrorist trials, India could not and would not have come up with speedy trial of Headley and punished him.
If you were anyhow Indian you would have believed him and gave him clean
chit along with ELECTION TICKET :D
This is not what a terrorist deserves,when we give a look back on the day
at the TAJ, we see brave-hearts fighting and dying for the safety of the
nation and common man. Also the people died and the loss the nation faced
in terms of lives and name.The sentence feels nothing better than the
shortest sentence of the world.The problem is not about hard sentencing
the Name Headly but stopping more productions from the terrorist
facilities.
This is a satisfactory ending of the case. I am happy that the USA had not agreed to extradite the criminal to be tried in India. Had we got him we could have spent precious time and crores of tax payer's money in keeping the criminal safe during the pendancy of the case. The maximum he would have got with our wonderful system would have been a life sentence. With the rebates in the tenure of sentence allowed by our irresponsible governments while celebrating our so called political leaders anniversaries, he would have been enlarged in less than 10 years while he is still fit to make further attempts at what he is good.
Now thats an exemplary punishment.
Hanging him would have made him a martyr in the eyes of
his fellow mates but now he is made to suffer for his heinous
deeds.
We Indians have to learn much from Americans in strict implementation of Law of The
Land.See what we are likely to do in case of reformative system of justic.They are likely to
unleashed on the unprotected segment of society with in a decade while the implementors of
justic will continue to sit comfort in their protected environment .This is India.
It is a total shame that he was not given the death penalty. Even killing one person is enough to be hanged but how many he killed including some foreigners. If this incident had happened in America he certainly would have been put to death. I feel sorry for the lost lives and may God bless them in Heaven. There is no justice anywhere in the world and no one even talks of lost lives. Hope Eminent judges in India do not fall for this thing called cooperation by the criminals and plea bargaining.
I hear that the Pakistani courts are moving heaven and earth to proceed with the trial
of the Mumbai conspirators. The military has arrested and handed over to the civilian
court the chief of LeT Saeed and the serving Major Iqbal, who worked with the
American Dawood. Wow! Can't wait. Can you?
If a government colludes with a mastermind of a mass killing or terrorist act and
becomes lenient, US government would have considered it unacceptable. Because it is
Mumbai US decides to let this criminal get off with a 35 year term
While it is good that Headley has been sentenced, though for a shorter time than what he deserved, for his role in the deadly Mumbai attacks which killed/injured so many people, it unfortunate that that the NIA and the Home Mimistry has shown no urgency in finding out who his collaborators were in India even after so many years after the attacks.
this is the power of us.india might have trialed this case for years
without any result.better us didnot submit him to india.
Congratulations to USA and its justice system. 35 years imprisonment for
a person who is 52 year old, means life in prison. Now how about
punishing the Pakistani government, Pakistani state and its army and ISI
officers who funded, trained and motivated the LeT terrorists ? Or are
we not even suppose to talk about it because of our imagined
helplessness to deal with Pakistan ?
Awarding of stringent punishment to its own citizen shows that the
Empire(USA) is constantly looking forward for stronger relationship
with Indian people and it government. When USA was rubbing shoulders
with Pakistan, agents creation and terror network like Al-Qaeda for
their intelligence.
During the subsequent collapse of USSR, it has constantly fighting with
Islamist fundamentalist ideology. In the first year of 21st century it
has realized the consequences of its own creation. After WTO attacks on
the heart of USA, it wokenup the potential threat posed by the Al-Queda
and its branches Harakat ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JEM),Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). It started eliminating the support network
and its leaders inside and outside USA. Elimination of Al-queda
leadership, sentencing Kashmir borne Indian-American Syed Ghulam Nabi
Fai are some of concrete steps in that direction. 35 years sentencing
of Daood Sayed Gilani for his spying missions in Mumbai attacks is a
good gesture.
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