David Headley
David Coleman Headley (born Daood Sayed Gilani; June 30, 1960) is an American terrorist. He is currently serving a 35-year sentence in the United States after pleading guilty to 12 international terrorism charges.
David Headley | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daood Sayed Gilani June 30, 1960 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Video store proprietor DEA informant |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) | Sayed Salim Gilani (father) Alice Serrill Headley (mother) |
| Conviction(s) | Conspiracy to bomb places of public use in India (18 U.S.C. § 2232) Conspiracy to murder and maim in India (18 U.S.C. § 956) Murder of United States nationals abroad (18 U.S.C. § 2332) (6 counts) Conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorists in India and Pakistan (18 U.S.C. §§ 2339A and 2339B) Conspiracy to murder and maim in Denmark (18 U.S.C. § 956) Conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists in Denmark (18 U.S.C. § 2339A) Providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization (18 U.S.C. § 2339B) |
| Criminal penalty | 35 years imprisonment |
It has been alleged that Headley made periodic trips to Pakistan for Lashkar-e-Taiba training while simultaneously working as an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), but this is disputed. Under the direction of Lashkar chiefs, Headley performed five surveillance missions in Mumbai to scout targets for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people. The following year, he performed a similar mission in Copenhagen to help plan an attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which had published cartoons of Muhammad. He was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago while on his way to Pakistan in October 2009.
U.S. authorities gave Indian investigators direct access to Headley, but some in India have questioned why the U.S. had not shared suspicions about him with Indian authorities before the Mumbai attacks. At the trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an alleged co-conspirator, Headley gave detailed information about the participation of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in carrying out the attacks. Since his arrest and guilty plea, Headley has cooperated with U.S. and Indian authorities and given information about his associates. On January 24, 2013, a U.S. federal court sentenced Headley to 35 years in prison for his role in the Mumbai attacks.
Headley was prosecuted by a Mumbai special court in early February 2016, via a video link from his prison cell in the United States. He was prosecuted by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, the same lawyer who represented the state during the Mumbai attack trials.