Headley is cooperating with FBI to escape death penalty: Report

vIndianz.com ( 14 Dec, 2009) — Pakistani-origin US national David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative charged with criminal scheme in the 26/11 terror attacks, currently appears to have turned into informer to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to keep away from death penalty.

Headley, 49, was arrested on October 3 by the FBI and has been charged for being implicated in the Mumbai terror attacks, in which 166 people, including six US nationals, were killed.

Given the strong case against him, Headley is doubtful to come out of the jail and faces death penalty.

“But by talking this time, Headley may get away from the death penalty,” Philadelphia Inquirer said.

Nevertheless, Headley, with the knowledge of having been informer to federal prosecutors at least twice as a consequence of which his sentence was abridged, has again turned out an informant this time so as to keep away from death penalty.

The FBI charge-sheet filed against Headley gives a hint of it, in which the federal prosecutors say that he is cooperating in the investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Court records point out that Headley, previously known as Dawood Gilani, was arrested two times on drug charges and on both the occasions, his sentence was abridged and was able to leave the jail early as he turned out to be a good informer to the drug enforcement agencies and helped them in finding of some of the chief drug cartels.

“He wasn’t tough to crack: Before the day was out, Daood ‘David’ Gilani decided to save his own skin, agreeing to betray his drug-dealing partners by helping US drug agents set up a sting,” the paper reported referring to his arrest in 1988 on charges of possessing two kilos of heroine.

“It was the beginning of a complex, off-and-on association as a confidential informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration – one that lasted over a decade,” it said.

In fact, Gilani was so helpful as a DEA informant in the late 1990s on heroin imported from Pakistan, according to records and Inquirer interviews, that prosecutors made a unusual move: They ended his trial years early, allowing him to travel without restraint. Within weeks, investigators say, he began training with terrorists in Pakistan,” the newspaper said.

“Once again (after his recent arrest), Headley straight away switched sides. Prosecutors say he admitted taking trips to the jihadist camps and performing surveillance and photo reconnaissance for terrorist plots in Denmark and India, including preparations for the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks,” the newspaper said.

Headley has been charged by the FBI in 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb places in India and Denmark and for providing material support to terrorist plots. The next hearing of his case will be held on January 12.