WikiLeaks reveals: Pak told US Headley hearsay wont work in court

Islamabad had also denied FBI access to a 26/11 attack co-conspirator who is in the custody of ISI.

In what could have a major impact on Indias efforts to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice,Islamabad had informed the US that statements made by David Coleman Headley would not be admissible in Pakistani courts and would be treated as hearsay,latest documents released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks reveal. The documents also show that Islamabad had denied the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) access to a co-conspirator in the Mumbai attack case,Major Abdurrehman Syed,who is in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The leaked documents reveal that as late as February this year,the Pakistani Ministry of Interior had informed the FBI that the government would not use any evidence related to the Headley investigation in its case against the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks.

FIA and Ministry of Interior informed the FBI that it would be difficult to introduce Headley-related evidence in the governments prosecution of the Mumbai defendants,including because Headleys statements to US authorities would be treated as hearsay with little evidentiary value in court, the leaked cable reads.

The documents pertain to a briefing of FBI Director Robert Mueller by US diplomats in Islamabad on February 22 this year,ahead of his meeting with top Pakistani officials,including Interior Minister Rehman Malik and ISI Director General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

The cable also reveals Pakistans reluctance to pursue leads from the Headley investigations and quotes ISI officials as saying that they had very little information to identify the Pakistanis mentioned in the statements.

The ISI had also conveyed to the US that its investigating agency FBI would not be allowed direct access to Abdurrehman Syed. Instead,Pakistan told the US that all queries for Syed should be routed through the ISI.

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Wikileaks: Headley confessions wont stand in Pak courts

On Hafiz Saeed,head of the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD),the cable says Pakistan had informed the US that more evidence was required to prosecute him in the Mumbai attack case. The government has repeatedly told us that it would need much more evidence of Saeeds direct involvement in the Mumbai attacks to move forward with Mumbai-related charges against him, the cable reads.

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On the ongoing trial against seven suspects in the Mumbai case,the US agreed that the case had been proceeding at a slow pace. The cable reveals that while the Pakistani government assured US officials that they would win convictions against all the defendants,there were doubts that some of them,specially the two alleged financiers,might get relief from appellate authorities.

The government has continually reassured us that the prosecutors will win convictions against all the defendants after a trial lasting several months,though it has a stronger case against the five LeT operatives than against the two terrorism financiers. There are concerns that some of the convictions could be overturned at the appellate level,where the courts set an extremely high evidentiary bar, the cable reads.