LAHORE: Mastermind of Mumbai Terrorist Attack and Banned Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz saeed was sentenced on Thursday to 15 and a half years in prison by an anti-terrorist court in Pakistan in one more case of terrorist financing.
The Lahore Anti-Terrorism Tribunal (ATC) also fined Saeed 200,000 Pakistani rupees (PKR).
The 70-year-old radical cleric has already been sentenced to 21 years in prison in four terrorist financing cases lately.
“On Thursday, a Lahore Anti-Terrorism Tribunal (ATC) sentenced five leaders of Jamat-ud-Dawa, including their boss Hafiz Saeed, in another terrorist financing case … for 15 and a half years,” said a judicial official to PTI. .
Now, Saeed will have to spend a collective incarceration of more than 36 years in five terrorist financing cases at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. His punishment will be carried out at the same time in these cases. There are reports that he is given “VIP protocol” in jail.
Saeed, a UN-designated terrorist who was awarded a $ 10 million bounty by the United States, was arrested on July 17 last year in the terrorist financing cases.
He was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a counter-terrorism court in February this year in two terrorist financing cases.
In November, Saeed was sentenced to another 10 years in jail by a counterterrorism court in two more terrorist financing cases.
The other four JuD leaders convicted by the court on Thursday are Hafiz Abdus Salam, Zafar Iqbal, JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid and Muhammad Ashraf.
Each convicted person has also been fined PKR 200,000.
The ATC also sentenced Saeed’s brother-in-law, Abdul Rehman Makki, to six months in prison in this case and fined him 200,000 PKR, the official said.
“ATC Court No. 3 Judge Ijaz Ahmed heard case No. 32/19 brought by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in which the verdict was announced after Saeed and other people’s lawyers questioned the witnesses – Naseeruddin Nayyar and Mohammad Imran Fazal Gul Advocate, “the official said.
He said JuD leaders, including Saeed, were brought before the court amid a high level of security and the media were not allowed to cover the proceedings.
The CTD has registered a total of 41 cases against the JuD leaders, of which 28 have been resolved and the rest are pending in the ATC courts. So far five cases have been decided against Saeed.
JuD, led by Saeed, is the main organization of Lashkar-e-Toiba (Leave) who is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The United States Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a specially designated global terrorist. It was listed by UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog on terrorist financing, is critical in pressuring Pakistan to take action against terrorists who freely roam Pakistan and use their territory to carry out attacks in India.
The FATF graylisted Pakistan in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement an action plan to curb money laundering and terrorist financing by the end of 2019, but the deadline was later extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
With Pakistan remaining on the ‘gray list’, the country may find it difficult to obtain financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, which further exacerbates more trouble for the cash-strapped nation.
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