Mumbai suspect ready for gallows
22 July 2009 | 
Author: Professor |
CBC News 22 July, 2009
The sole surviving suspect in the Mumbai attacks told an Indian court Wednesday that he expects no mercy and is ready to go to the gallows for his role in the violence last November that left 166 people dead. "Whatever I have done, I have done in this world. It would be better to be punished in this world. It would be better than God's punishment. That's why I have pleaded guilty," said Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, a Pakistani national.
"If I am hanged for this, I am not bothered. I don't want any mercy from the court. I understand the implications of my accepting the crime," he said. Kasab stunned the court by making a surprise confession Monday after months of denials and pleading not guilty to all 86 criminal counts against him. He detailed the trail of carnage wrought in the three-day attack that began Nov. 26 and which India says was masterminded by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with ties to al-Qaeda. After landing in Mumbai by boat from Karachi, Pakistan, Kasab, along with nine other gunmen, split up into pairs and fanned out to carry out the killings at the railway station, a hospital, a Jewish centre, a restaurant packed with foreigners and two five-star hotels. Judge M.L. Tahiliyani has not yet ruled whether he will accept the confession. Chief prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam urged the court to allow the prosecution to finish presenting its case so it can expose inconsistencies in Kasab's confession. He said he will also reveal why Mumbai and foreigners were targeted. But defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi said the court should accept Kasab's admission of guilt and hand out a sentence. However, if the judge doesn't want to accept the guilty plea, he should also reject Kasab's confessional statement.
(original link)
Professor's Notes: The prosecution wants to finish it's presentation of it's case against Mr.Kasab, in spite of his abrupt and apparently shocking confession. The defense wants the court to accept their client's admission of guilt and is awaiting the sentence for Kasab. However, as this article suggests, the judge presiding over Kasab's case may not accept his sudden and rushed admission of guilt, in which case this proceeding could take any number of turns. If Kasab's manufactured confession does NOT settle this issue and the charges against him, then the court and judge in question may end up having to sift through evidence from sources that may not be so eager to excuse the involvement of Indian intelligence, military and government in the Mumbai false-flag terror event. Watch closely as this issue is likely to represent a classic watershed moment in India-Pakistani relations, which affects all of US.
