Lashkars Headley will plead guilty in US today

Pakistani-American David Headley,a terror suspect in the Mumbai attacks,will plead guilty before a US court tomorrow,a move that may get him a lighter sentence than the maximum death penalty....

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Pakistani-American David Headley,a terror suspect in the Mumbai attacks,will plead guilty before a US court tomorrow,a move that may get him a lighter sentence than the maximum death penalty.

(In New Delhi,official sources told The Indian Express that the government was seeking a legal opinion on filing a supplementary chargesheet against Headley in the 26/11 trial since that could delay proceedings in the case. The Indian security establishment is watching the US case closely and there is one view that a lesser sentence after plea bargaining will confirm suspicions about Headley being a double agent.)

Headley,who was arrested by the FBI in October last year,will move a plea bargain which will be heard by US District Judge Harry Leinenweber tomorrow.

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Yes,he will plead guilty, John Theis,Headleys lawyer,told PTI. He declined to comment on whether Headley would be pleading guilty to all or some of the charges against him.

The 49-year-old Lashkar-e-Toiba operative had pleaded not guilty to the 12-count superseding indictment filed against him on January 14.

He had got away with a lesser sentence after he was arrested in 1998 for smuggling heroin into the US from Pakistan as he cooperated with the investigation in the case.

He was sentenced to less than two years in prison and thereafter went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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Son of a Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite,Headley,a Chicago resident,faces six counts of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India,murdering and maiming persons in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist plots and LeT; and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.

He is also charged with plotting attacks against a Danish newspaper which published a cartoon of the Prophet.