New lawyer for Pakistani suspect in Mumbai attacks

MUMBAI, India - The judge presiding over the first trial in the Mumbai terrorist attacks assigned the Pakistani defendant a new lawyer Thursday, a day after the trial was abruptly adjourned and the man's attorney dismissed for a conflict of interest.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is charged with 12 criminal counts, including murder and waging war against India. Prosecutors say Kasab and nine other gunmen, who were killed during the siege, are responsible for the deaths of 166 people and the injury of 304 more.

Judge M.L. Tahiliyani told Kasab _ who faces the death penalty if convicted _ that Pakistani authorities had not responded to his request for a defense lawyer from his homeland and he would be assigned another Indian lawyer.

The judge on Wednesday dismissed Kasab's legal aid lawyer after she failed to disclose that she had agreed to represent a victim, who is also a witness against Kasab, in a compensation claim case.

There had been concern that the setback would delay the trial, but the judge said it would move forward later Thursday when prosecutors are to make their opening remarks.

The trial had already been pushed back nine days, as police scrambled to put the finishing touches on a special bombproof courtroom in the central Mumbai jail where Kasab is being held.

Kasab's two co-defendants, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, are Indian nationals charged with helping plot the attacks. Their lawyer maintains that both are innocent.

Court officials say they hope the case will be finished in six months to a year. If they're right, it would be a record.

The trial in India's deadliest terror attack, the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people, took 14 years to complete.

India has blamed last year's attacks on Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militant group widely believed to have been created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in the divided Kashmir region.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged that the attacks were partly plotted on their soil and announced criminal proceedings against eight suspects. They have also acknowledged that Kasab is a Pakistani national.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)