Lawyers call for age tests for 26/11 gunman

Lawyers for the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks called for tests to determine his age on Monday as they seek to prove he was under 18 when the siege of the city took place.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was captured during the attacks and is appealing against a death sentence issued by a court in May this year.

"We are calling for [medical] re-examination," Farhana Shah, a lawyer defending Kasab, told AFP, saying Kasab had not developed his wisdom teeth. "Our view is he was below 18 when the attacks took place," she said. Shah and her colleague Amin Solkar filed two petitions in the Bombay High Court - one seeking to determine his age and the other to know his current mental state - which are likely to be heard by judges on Tuesday.

If Kasab is found to have been a juvenile at the time of the attacks, the case would have to be reheard by a juvenile court and he would not be subject to the death penalty, a lawyer told AFP, asking not to be named.

This is the second time lawyers for Kasab have sought to prove he should be tried as a juvenile, following a similar attempt in May 2009, which was rejected by the trial judge.

"These are delaying tactics," state public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP on Monday.

According to Nikam, on the day of the Mumbai attacks, which left 166 people dead and more than 300 others injured, Kasab was 21 years, two months and 13 days old.

Kasab, who was caught by the Indian police during the 60-hour siege, is in solitary confinement in a high-security Mumbai prison after being found guilty of a string of offences, including waging war against India and murder.

Under Indian law the local state High Court has to confirm the death sentence.

Kasab has a further right of appeal to the Supreme Court in New Delhi and to the country's president as a last resort.
 

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