THE HIGH COURT IN MUMBAI has upheld the death sentence of the only gunman to have survived the November 2008 terrorist attacks on the city in which over 170 people were killed.
Pakistani man Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, 24, was convicted last May of over 80 charges including murder, attempted murder, terrorist offences and waging war on India, and was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.
The judges at Mumbai’s High Court said it was a case of “extreme brutality” and if Kasab was not sentenced to death, the public would lose faith in the judicial process, Sify reports. Kasab has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The Bombay court also turned down a prosecution appeal against the acquittal of two Indian men, Sabauddin Ahmend and Faheem Ansari, who were accused of providing logistical support to the terrorists for the attack, the Times of India reports.
Prosecutors said they would appeal that decision to the Supreme Court.
Kasab was filmed carrying a gun and wearing a backpack in the main railway station in Mumbai, where dozens of people were shot dead. His nine accomplices helped to carry out attacks on the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels as well as on a Jewish centre and a popular restaurant.
The other nine people involved in the attacks were killed, as were 166 other people.
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