LeT operative David Coleman Headley,a Pakistani-origin US citizen charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks,could face the “maximum statutory penalty” of life imprisonment or death if convicted.
This was contained in additional charges unsealed at a Chicago court,which is hearing the case against 49-year-old Headley,arrested by FBI in October along with another LeT operative and his school time friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
All other counts against Headley,a Chicago resident,carry a maximum of life imprisonment,except providing material support to the Denmark terror plot,which carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.
Headley was yesterday charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India,murder and maim persons in India and Denmark,provide material support to foreign terrorist plots,provide material support to terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba,and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.
The charges were announced by Patrick J Fitzgerald,US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois,and Robert D Grant,Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Headley had made several trips to Mumbai between 2005 and 2008 taking video and pictures of the possible targets and took boat ride to identify the sea route for the terrorists,according to federal prosecutors.