On a day when LeT operative David Coleman Headley deposed in a Mumbai court through a video link from a U.S. prison, the lawyer of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, termed the proceedings a “sham” and said it “would not affect the trial against his client in Pakistan.”
Raja Rizwan Abbasi, counsel for Lakhvi, told The Hindu on the phone that Lakhvi was with his family in Okara, Pakistan, and was involved in “social welfare” now. “It is a known fact that Headley was an agent of the U.S. and he was working for them. Why did the U.S authorities take 7-8 years to make this proposition to the Indian authorities to make him an approver? Whatever he says in the Indian court will not be admissible in a Pakistani court because in that case Headley will have to come here, stay in a Pakistani prison and then depose against Lakhvi,” Mr. Abbasi said.
The lawyer of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one of the main conspirators of the Mumbai attacks, said David Headley had entered into a plea bargain with the U.S authorities, and according to the Indian and American Constitutions, he could not be punished for the same crime twice.
“Even if he has become an approver in India, it is a delayed statement. It is an after-thought. He was a spy for the drug enforcement agency in the U.S. What is his credibility?” Raja Rizwan Abbasi told The Hindu on the phone.
Soon after the 2008 attacks, acting on international pressure, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency had registered a case against 27 accused, including Lakhvi. He is now out on bail.
