2008 mumbai attacks: Ajmal Kasab files mercy plea to president
Ajmal Kasab was one of the 10 gunmen who laid siege to the city in attacks that killed 166 people.
NEW DELHI:
Indian officials on Tuesday submitted a clemency plea to the president by the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, opening the final appeal stage against his death sentence.
Pakistan-born Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, currently in a Mumbai jail, was one of the 10 gunmen who laid siege to the city in attacks that lasted nearly three days and killed 166 people.
“Now it is for the president of India to take a final call as he holds the supreme authority in this matter,” a senior home ministry official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Kasab was sentenced to death in May 2010 after he was found guilty of a string of charges, including waging war against India, murder and terrorist acts.
He appealed in the Supreme Court claiming he did not receive a fair trial, but his petition was struck down in August.
Prisoners can often languish for years on death row in India, with only one execution having taken place in the last 15 years – that of a former security guard hanged in 2004 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2012.
Indian officials on Tuesday submitted a clemency plea to the president by the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, opening the final appeal stage against his death sentence.
Pakistan-born Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, currently in a Mumbai jail, was one of the 10 gunmen who laid siege to the city in attacks that lasted nearly three days and killed 166 people.
“Now it is for the president of India to take a final call as he holds the supreme authority in this matter,” a senior home ministry official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Kasab was sentenced to death in May 2010 after he was found guilty of a string of charges, including waging war against India, murder and terrorist acts.
He appealed in the Supreme Court claiming he did not receive a fair trial, but his petition was struck down in August.
Prisoners can often languish for years on death row in India, with only one execution having taken place in the last 15 years – that of a former security guard hanged in 2004 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2012.