India wants US terror suspect extradited

09 December 2009

Indian officials have said they were collecting evidence to charge a Chicago man for helping to plan last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people. The move comes after a team of US federal investigators shared evidence with India this week that incriminates Pakistan-born David Headley, a US citizen previously accused of plotting to attack the Danish newspaper ‘Jyllands-Posten’ for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Headley was arrested in the United States two months ago. Prosecutors there have now charged him with scouting targets for the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the November 2008 terrorist attacks on hotels and the Chabad House in Mumbai. However, Indian officials said they prefer Headley to be tried in India, and indicting him was the first step toward seeking his extradition for a trial in India. A senior official in India's Interior Ministry said US federal investigators had shared evidence and some details from Headley's interrogation, but more evidence was needed before he could be charged in Indian courts.

India has charged 38 people in connection with the Mumbai attacks, including the only surviving gunman. Most of those charged are thought to be in Pakistan. Headley, 49, traveled to Mumbai five times between September 2006 and July 2008, taking pictures and video of some places hit in the attacks as well as the port where the attackers landed by boat, according to US court documents. Headley went to Pakistan to turn over the results of his surveillance and, in early 2008, took boat trips into Mumbai harbor at the direction of his Lashkar-e-Taiba contacts.

Headley was arrested in September.

WJC and Fighting Terrorism