New Delhi: India's attempt to bring 26/11 mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to justice might get derailed again as his Pakistani lawyer said that his client will not give voice sample. The lawyer affirmed that authorities cannot take sample without his permission.
Hindustan Times quoted his lawyer Rizwan Abbasi as saying, “My client has refused in the past and will refuse again.”
“According to our law, the accused have to give their consent," he added.
This comes after Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif agreed to cooperate on terror during their meeting in Russian city Ufa, held on the side lines of SCO summit.
A joint media statement released by the both leaders after an hour-long meeting between on Friday outlined that the two sides had decided to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai case trial, including additional information like providing voice samples.
A Pakistani court ordered release of Lakhvi in April this year to which India had strongly objected.
Lakhvi, believed to be a close relative of LeT founder and Jamat-Ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009 in connection with the 26/11 attack case. The trial has been underway since 2009.
Accounts of his role in Mumbai attacks were narrated by now dead Ajmal Kasab, Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley and India-born Abu Jundal. Jundal and Lakhvi were present in a Karachi control room and two were part of a team that directed 10 terrorists during the Mumbai attacks.
A Pakistan court had rejected the prosecution's plea for voice samples saying the country's laws required the accused's permission and had also thrown out a CD containing conversations between the handlers and the terrorists.
“The judge had asked how the CD established that the voices on the terror tapes indeed belonged to the terrorists and whether anyone had corroborated the voices,” said an officer privy to the in-camera proceedings.
