Mumbai attacks accused Hafiz Saeed gets 10 years in jail for financing terror
Islamabad, Nov 19 (efe-epa).- A court in Pakistan gave a 10-year prison sentence to Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of a militant attack on Mumbai in 2008, on Thursday on charges of terrorism financing.
The radical Islamist cleric, wanted by the United States and India for his alleged role in the four-day Mumbai carnage that killed 166 people, was convicted in two terror cases.
The court gave him two five-year jail terms and another for six months that he will serve concurrently.
“Hafiz Saeed was awarded 10 years in two offenses and six months in the third offense. The case is about terror funding,” Jamil Ahmed, a spokesperson for an anti-terrorism court in Lahore, told EFE.
Ahmed indicated that the alleged militant leader, who runs charity organizations, banned Jamaat-u-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat, which are alleged fronts for Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit, acquired land Raiwind town.
He said Saeed built a religious school for his organization, which was involved in financing terrorist activities.
The anti-terror court also sentenced two other members of the banned charity to five and a half years in prison.
Saeed is already serving two five-and-half-year prison sentence since February after a court convicted him in another case related to financing terrorism.
Saeed is already in prison after he was sentenced in February to 11 years in jail for terrorism financing.
The firebrand cleric, known for his anti-US and anti-India rant, is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba that allegedly carried out the attacks at multiple locations in the Indian coastal city on Nov. 26, 2008.
The US has offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to the conviction of Saeed in the Mumbai attacks.
Saeed, who has been arrested and released several times over the past several years, has always denied he was involved in any militant activities, including the Mumbai carnage.
Pakistan is under international pressure to curb terror activities planned on its soil and act against militant groups, with Islamabad trying to avoid blacklisting by a global watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The Paris-based group judges a country’s ability to combat dirty financing for various illicit activities, including terrorist organizations.
The watchdog in October kept Pakistan in the grey list figuring countries, monitored by the group, which do not take full measures to combat money-laundering and terror financing. EFE-EPA
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