Prosecutor pushes for Kasab’s execution

MUMBAI: Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab “must be sentenced to death”, prosecution lawyers argued on Tuesday, as the judge weighed up what penalty to impose on him.

Kasab, a Pakistani national, was convicted on Monday of murder and waging war on India over the 60-hour siege in Mumbai that left 166 people dead and more than 300 wounded. The charges of waging war and murder both carry the death penalty, but it is unclear if a sentence would be pronounced on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“It would be a mockery of justice if the death penalty is not imposed,” public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the court. Nikam said the attack fell into the “rarest of rare” category of crime deemed by the Supreme Court as deserving the death penalty as it involved “focused, meticulous and detailed” planning to kill police officers and civilians. The imposition of the death penalty could trigger a lengthy and potentially open-ended appeal.