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Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty to plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and conducting reconnaissance for likely targets, will have to undergo a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
According to United States attorney office's spokesperson Randall Samborn, life imprisonment without probation is the maximum sentence that Headley can get.
"Probation means no jail term, but I said he's not eligible for probation so that's irrelevant," said Samborn. Headley, 49, is facing six counts of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India, murdering and maiming persons in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist plots and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba; and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India. Without a plea bargain, he could have been sentenced to death if convicted.
The son of a former Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite, Headley admitted guilty to all 12 counts during a half-an-hour long hearing on Thursday. Headley, a Chicago resident who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's joint terrorism task force on October 3 last year, told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence than the maximum death penalty.
But his plea agreement with federal prosecutors ruled out the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan and Denmark, provided that he cooperates with the government's investigations.