After Rana, Headley too pleads not guilty to terror charges

Chicago: Terror suspect David Headley, who changed his name to hide his Pakistani origin, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including scouting targets for the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people.

Son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, Headley, who changed his name from Daood Sayed Gilani in 2006 to hide his Pakistani origin before travelling to India, entered his plea before US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in Chicago federal court on Wednesday.

Headley also denied that he provided material support to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed for the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks and for a plot to attack a Danish newspaper.

Prosecutors and his lawyer have both said Headley is cooperating with the government.

"He knows the seriousness and the gravity of the charges against him," Headley's defence lawyer John Theis told reporters after the hearing.

Theis said he may report on progress toward "an ultimate disposition" of the case at a hearing set for Feb 23 before US District Judge Harry Leinenweber.

Headley, who was arrested by US authorities on October 3 last year, entered a plea of not guilty to the same charges last month.

The US Justice Department on January 14 had announced the unsealing of a fresh indictment against Headley and three other men.

Also named in the indictment were Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed and Ilyas Kashmiri, who prosecutors called "an allegedly influential terrorist organisation leader" in Pakistan with ties to al Qaeda.

Headley, who is accused of conspiring to bomb public places in India, resulting in the deaths of US nationals, faces a possible death sentence if convicted. Prosecutors said he made five trips to Mumbai from 2006 to 2008, taking photographs and making videotapes of the targets later attacked.

Headley was remanded to federal custody on Wednesday.

Rana faces two counts of providing material support to terrorism and one count of providing material support to the LeT. He pleaded not guilty before the US court on January 25 and is being held without bail. The other two defendants remain at large, the prosecutors said.