Mumbai (AsiaNews
/ Agencies) - India has renewed its request for extradition of David Coleman
Headly, an Pakistani-American terrorist sentenced yesterday to 35 years in the
U.S. for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The
man, 52, risked the death penalty, but the judges took into account the
cooperation offered in recent years, recognizing him as guilty of conspiracy
and helping militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), responsible for the attack. For
Salman Khurshid, Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the man should receive
"a more severe penalty," even if the sentence "is a start."
Born
Daood Gilani to Pakistani father and an American mother, in 2006, the terrorist
changed his name to David Coleman Headley "to present himself in India -
said the prosecutor - as an American who was neither Pakistani nor
Muslim."
FBI
agents arrested Gilani in Chicago in October 2009, while attempting to catch a
flight to Philadelphia. At
first the man declared innocence, but to avoid the death penalty and
extradition to India he confessed to his involvement and cooperated in the case
against another affiliate of LET, the Canadian-Pakistani businessman Tahawwur
Rana. India
has always demanded his extradition to judge him according to the laws of India
Gilani
said he entered LET in 2002, and chose and studied the places where the attack took
place November 26, 2008. That
day a series of attacks hit some of the hot spots of Mumbai: Railway stations,
local airports, hospitals, and two of the most luxurious hotels in the city,
the Oberoi and the Taj Palace. The attacks left 166 dead
and 238 wounded. Ajmal
Kasab, the only survivor of the 10 bombers involved in the attack, was executed
November 21, 2012.