Headley May Dodge Life Sentence for Mumbai Attack

Chicago: Pakistani-American David Headley, a key plotter in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attack staged by Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), may avoid life imprisonment when a U.S court sentences him.

Citing the "significant cooperation" to U.S government's efforts to combat terrorism provided by Headley, 52, Washington born son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American mother, U.S federal prosecutors are seeking only 30 to 35 years in prison for him.

Headley, who changed his given name of Dawood Gilani to scout targets in Mumbai without arousing suspicion, has pleaded guilty to 12 charges relating to his role in the Mumbai attack as also an abortive LeT plot to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Ahead of Headley's sentencing, Gary Shapiro, the acting U.S Attorney in Chicago, in a memo to the federal district court said that the 30-35 year sentence recommended by the prosecution for Headley was fair.

"While his criminal conduct was deplorable, the uniquely significant cooperation which he provided to the government's efforts to combat terrorism support the government's recommendations," he said.

After he promised in 2010 to cooperate with U.S authorities, prosecutors "had agreed not to seek the death penalty against him and to not extradite him to Pakistan, India or Denmark for the offences to which he pleaded guilty."

Headley was the star witness against his Pakistan-born boyhood friend Tahawwur Rana, who was sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for providing material support to LeT in its plot to attack the Danish newspaper.

In his memo, Shapiro said "Headley played an essential role in the planning of a horrific terrorist attack" in Mumbai. He "not only worked at the direction of Lashkar-e-Taiba for years, but also with members of Al Qaeda."