26/11 mastermind gets to 15-year jail sentence

LAHORE: Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zaki-urRehman Lakhvi was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Friday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court here in a terror financing case.

UN proscribed terrorist Lakhvi, 61, who was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case, was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab province on Saturday. “The AntiTerrorism Court (ATC) Lahore convicted Lakhvi for commission of offences of terrorism financing in a case registered by the CTD for 15 years under different sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,” a court official said. Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar sentenced Lakhvi to five years of rigorous imprisonment each on three counts.

LAHORE: Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Friday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court here in a terror financing case.

UN proscribed terrorist Lakhvi, 61, who was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case, was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab province on Saturday. “The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Lahore convicted Lakhvi for commission of offences of terrorism financing in a case registered by the CTD for 15 years under different sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,” a court official told PTI after the hearing.

Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar sentenced Lakhvi to five years of rigorous imprisonment each on three counts with a fine of PKR 100,000 (approximately USD 620) each on three counts. “In default of payment of fine, he will have to undergo an imprisonment of six months each on three counts. He has been sent to prison to serve the sentences,” the official said. Lakhvi pleaded before the court that he was “falsely implicated” in this case.

The LeT commander was accused of running a dispensary and using funds collected for terrorism financing. “He and others also collected funds from this dispensary and used these funds for further terrorism financing. He also used these funds for personal expenses,” the CTD said.

Lakhvi was presented before the Lahore ATC on Friday and was convicted the same day in the terror financing case registered against him some time ago. The court was told that Lakhvi, a resident of Renal Khurd Okara district of Punjab, was living in Islamabad before his arrest.

Lakhvi was designated as a global terrorist by the UN in December 2008 for being associated with LeT and al-Qaeda and for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” both the entities.

Proscribed terrorists and entities are subject to an assets freeze, wherein all states are required to freeze funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities, a travel ban that prevents the entry into or transit through nations’ territories by the designated individuals and an arms embargo.