ForLiberty-RonPaul
12-19-2009, 01:00 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/18/mumbai-suspect-withdraws-confession
One of the prime suspects in last year's Mumbai terrorist attacks suddenly withdrew his confession today and claimed he had been framed by police.
Mohammad Ajmal Kasab is on trial in Mumbai accused of being the lone surviving gunman from the attacks, in which 166 people died over three days in November last year.
Prosecutors are adamant that Kasab is the young man seen clutching an automatic rifle and striding through the city's railway station in a picture that has become the iconic image of the attacks.
Kasab insisted today that this was not the case, smiling as he set out his new version of events. Far from arriving by sea with the other gunmen on the night the attacks began, he said, he had pitched up nearly three weeks earlier hoping to break into the Bollywood film industry and had been picked up by the police three days before the attacks for being Pakistani.
It was his misfortune, he claimed, to be the doppelgänger of one of the gunmen shot dead by police. Lacking a culprit to put on trial, they had taken him from his cell the day the attacks were launched, shot him to make it look as if he had been injured in the crossfire and then framed him, he said.
"I was not present in the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus and I did not open firing inside the railway station. I have never seen an AK-47 in my life, or even a rubber dingy," he told the astonished courtroom.
It was a remarkable twist, even in a week in which David Headley, the man alleged to have masterminded the attacks, was accused by Indian intelligence sources of acting as a double agent for the CIA and al-Qaida.
It is not the first time Kasab has changed his story. The 21-year-old, who faces the death penalty if convicted, initially denied the charges. He surprised everyone – including his lawyer – by changing his plea to guilty in July and regaling the court with an account of how he had travelled to Mumbai by boat from Pakistan with his fellow gunmen to launch the attacks. He would rather be hanged in this world than face God's punishment in the next, he explained.
Today, he had a different story to tell, though it did feature Headley, the 49-year-old son of an American mother and Pakistani father, who is in jail in the US charged with conspiring in the siege and planning to attack a Danish newspaper.
Kasab started to explain to the court that he had met Headley, but only after the attacks. Headley was one of four white men who came to his cell to interrogate him, he said, before the judge silenced him on the grounds that it was not relevant.
That intervention will do little to dampen the fevered speculation in India about Headley and what role, if any, he may have played in orchestrating the attacks.
Headley was arrested two months ago while apparently preparing to travel to Pakistan via Philadelphia. According to US court documents, he is said to have travelled to Mumbai five times between September 2006 and July 2008, taking pictures and video of some of the places hit in the attacks and of the port where the attackers landed by boat. He is also alleged to have attended training camps in Pakistan run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group credited with launching the attacks.
While Kasab's trial has trundled on quietly, the Indian media has for weeks been full of accounts of Headley's colourful background. He is said by US officials to have posed as an American Jew and to have travelled around India filming with a video camera and spending freely.
Various accounts suggest he lived a lavish lifestyle, staying at five-star hotels and frequenting a gym popular with Bollywood stars. There have been reports that he enjoyed the company of a number of women during his time in Mumbai, spending heavily on gifts and entertainment.
He is also said to have stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel – one of those hit during the attacks – wining and dining a Pakistani woman whom he claimed was his wife. Reports from the US suggest she was not his legal wife, who lives in Chicago with their children.
The Indian authorities are believed to have been infuriated by the refusal of their US counterparts to grant access to Headley, though publicly they have remained diplomatic. The CIA was quick to deny that Headley was their man and India's foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, said it would be unprofessional to comment on claims that the US had advance notice of the attacks.
Earlier this week Rao was forced to announce an investigation into reports that Headley's visa application paperwork had gone missing from India's consulate in Chicago.
Today's court drama left the prosecution unimpressed. "All the while, I expected that Kasab was about to take a U-turn in the case," said Ujjwal Nikam, the prosecutor. "He is a military-trained commando. It's not going to affect our case."
He added that the prosecution had "clinching evidence" against Kasab, who is charged with 86 separate offences including murder and waging war against India.
The attacks began on 26 November last year. Ten gunmen stormed two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and the train station. It took nearly three days for the police to finally end the subsequent siege, by which time nine of the gunmen were dead, according to the official account.
Last week a Pakistani court indicted seven Pakistani suspects in connection with the attacks.
The trial continues.
One of the prime suspects in last year's Mumbai terrorist attacks suddenly withdrew his confession today and claimed he had been framed by police.
Mohammad Ajmal Kasab is on trial in Mumbai accused of being the lone surviving gunman from the attacks, in which 166 people died over three days in November last year.
Prosecutors are adamant that Kasab is the young man seen clutching an automatic rifle and striding through the city's railway station in a picture that has become the iconic image of the attacks.
Kasab insisted today that this was not the case, smiling as he set out his new version of events. Far from arriving by sea with the other gunmen on the night the attacks began, he said, he had pitched up nearly three weeks earlier hoping to break into the Bollywood film industry and had been picked up by the police three days before the attacks for being Pakistani.
It was his misfortune, he claimed, to be the doppelgänger of one of the gunmen shot dead by police. Lacking a culprit to put on trial, they had taken him from his cell the day the attacks were launched, shot him to make it look as if he had been injured in the crossfire and then framed him, he said.
"I was not present in the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus and I did not open firing inside the railway station. I have never seen an AK-47 in my life, or even a rubber dingy," he told the astonished courtroom.
It was a remarkable twist, even in a week in which David Headley, the man alleged to have masterminded the attacks, was accused by Indian intelligence sources of acting as a double agent for the CIA and al-Qaida.
It is not the first time Kasab has changed his story. The 21-year-old, who faces the death penalty if convicted, initially denied the charges. He surprised everyone – including his lawyer – by changing his plea to guilty in July and regaling the court with an account of how he had travelled to Mumbai by boat from Pakistan with his fellow gunmen to launch the attacks. He would rather be hanged in this world than face God's punishment in the next, he explained.
Today, he had a different story to tell, though it did feature Headley, the 49-year-old son of an American mother and Pakistani father, who is in jail in the US charged with conspiring in the siege and planning to attack a Danish newspaper.
Kasab started to explain to the court that he had met Headley, but only after the attacks. Headley was one of four white men who came to his cell to interrogate him, he said, before the judge silenced him on the grounds that it was not relevant.
That intervention will do little to dampen the fevered speculation in India about Headley and what role, if any, he may have played in orchestrating the attacks.
Headley was arrested two months ago while apparently preparing to travel to Pakistan via Philadelphia. According to US court documents, he is said to have travelled to Mumbai five times between September 2006 and July 2008, taking pictures and video of some of the places hit in the attacks and of the port where the attackers landed by boat. He is also alleged to have attended training camps in Pakistan run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group credited with launching the attacks.
While Kasab's trial has trundled on quietly, the Indian media has for weeks been full of accounts of Headley's colourful background. He is said by US officials to have posed as an American Jew and to have travelled around India filming with a video camera and spending freely.
Various accounts suggest he lived a lavish lifestyle, staying at five-star hotels and frequenting a gym popular with Bollywood stars. There have been reports that he enjoyed the company of a number of women during his time in Mumbai, spending heavily on gifts and entertainment.
He is also said to have stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel – one of those hit during the attacks – wining and dining a Pakistani woman whom he claimed was his wife. Reports from the US suggest she was not his legal wife, who lives in Chicago with their children.
The Indian authorities are believed to have been infuriated by the refusal of their US counterparts to grant access to Headley, though publicly they have remained diplomatic. The CIA was quick to deny that Headley was their man and India's foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, said it would be unprofessional to comment on claims that the US had advance notice of the attacks.
Earlier this week Rao was forced to announce an investigation into reports that Headley's visa application paperwork had gone missing from India's consulate in Chicago.
Today's court drama left the prosecution unimpressed. "All the while, I expected that Kasab was about to take a U-turn in the case," said Ujjwal Nikam, the prosecutor. "He is a military-trained commando. It's not going to affect our case."
He added that the prosecution had "clinching evidence" against Kasab, who is charged with 86 separate offences including murder and waging war against India.
The attacks began on 26 November last year. Ten gunmen stormed two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and the train station. It took nearly three days for the police to finally end the subsequent siege, by which time nine of the gunmen were dead, according to the official account.
Last week a Pakistani court indicted seven Pakistani suspects in connection with the attacks.
The trial continues.