United States rules out extradition for Headley

, Jan 23: The

has ruled out any extradition for the American born LeT terrorist

, in lieu of providing critical information to the US agencies about various other terror outfits. The

accused also agreed to co-operate with the government as well as any foreign judicial proceedings held inside US through video conferencing or deposition, Attorney Gary S Shapiro informed a Chicago court on Tuesday.

[See: Headley played important role in 26/11 mass murder: US]

The attorney ruled out any extradition for the 26/11 accused under a guilty plea that the Pakistani-American had entered into with the US government and in lieu of the co-operation he extended to the government and the crucial information about various terrorist outfits that he shared with the American investigating agencies.

"As the Court knows, Headley's testimony helped secure a conviction against (Tahawwur) Rana. Further, Headley has agreed to provide truthful testimony in any proceeding in the United States if called upon by the United States Attorney's Office, as well as any foreign judicial proceeding held in the United States by way of deposition, video-conferencing or letters rogatory," Acting United States Attorney Gary S Shapiro told the Chicago Court in a 20-page submission made today.

In addition to meeting with investigators from the United States, Headley was interviewed by Indian law enforcement officers for seven days, Shapiro said. "Headley answered their questions without any restriction and the government understands that the Indian government found the information to be useful. Additionally, Headley has taken other steps and provided other information to assist authorities," he said.

Shapiro said Headley volunteered to co-operate with the investigating agencies and provide them with the information a day after his arrest in Oct 2009.

After seeing what took place in Mumbai in Nov 2008, Headley traveled to Denmark in Jan 2009, he said. There, he gained entry to two separate facilities for the newspaper, using the same cover story provided to him by Rana that he used in Mumbai, Shapiro said, adding that in Feb and May 2009, he met with Ilyas Kashmiri, who encouraged Headley to break away from Lashkar and plan the attacks in Denmark with his group.

"Kashmiri directed Headley to meet with associates in the United Kingdom and inform them that the plan was to take over the newspaper building and fight to the death with responding Danish forces. Specifically, Kashmiri told Headley that he wanted the attackers to behead hostages and throw the heads on the street in order to heighten the response from Danish authorities," it said.

According to Shapiro, Headley traveled to the UK to meet with those associates in Jul 2009 and thereafter visited Copenhagen a second time, where he took more video of the intended target. In early Oct 2009, Headley was arrested at O'Hare Airport, where he was set to travel to Pakistan to again meet with Kashmiri as well as Sajid Mir. "In sum, Headley worked to advance the violent goals of terrorist organisations and terrorist attacks for approximately seven years," Shapiro said.

PTI