Chicago: Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks at the behest of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, on Thursday pleaded guilty to all terror charges before a US court in Chicago.
NDTV's Sarah Jacob attended that hearing.
A somber Headley walked into a US court in chains on Thursday and then pleaded guilty to 12 counts of charges filed against him.
He was then asked to take an oath and clarify that he is in sound mental health and understands the gravity of the charges he faces.
Headley, aka Dawood Gilani, then plead guilty of plotting and planning along with the LeT, the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which over 160 people were killed.
A packed audience watched these court proceedings. NDTV has been covering these hearings for months now. And for the first time, there was not an empty seat available in the court house.
In fact for the first time, all journalists were made to walk through a metal detector and all our personal belongings had to be inspected by sniffer dogs, before we could go into the courtroom.
Another sign of just of how high profiled this case has become in the US and how important it is to the US authorities was that US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was physically present in court today.
This is only the second case that Patrick Fitzgerald is personally prosecuting since he took over office in 2001.
A noted terrorism expert, Patrick Fitzgerald, made his name when as an assistant US attorney, he successfully prosecuted the 1993 world trade terror attack case.
In the end as expected, David Coleman Headley, in return for cooperating with US authorities was guaranteed that he will not be sentenced to death and that he will not be extradited to India.