US: Headley's arraignment tomorrow

The arraignment for Pakistan-origin US national David Coleman Headley charged with criminal conspiracy in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks has been scheduled for December 9.

"The arraignment for David Coleman Headley is scheduled on December 9, 2009, before US District Judge Harry D Leinenweber," a statement from the US Attorney's Office said.

Headley has been charged with conspiracy in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The charges, filed in a court here, also allege that Headley conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the November 2008 terrorist attacks that killed about 163 people, including six Americans.

Headley was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, provide material support to foreign terrorist plots, provide material support to terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.

Headley's attorney John Theis told PTI he was looking into the charges filed and "would see what the evidence is".

Theis said the government has indicated in the charges that Headley is cooperating with the investigation and "this particular detail (that Headley is cooperating in the ongoing investigation of both the Danish and Indian terror plots), we will not dispute".

Headley has been in federal custody since his arrest in October by the FBI. His detention hearing, originally scheduled for December 4, had been indefinitely postponed.