A Pakistani man accused of being part of a militant commando group that carried out a three-day orgy of violence in Mumbai nearly 18 months ago is due to learn his fate in court next week.
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, said to be the lone surviving gunman, was arrested during the rampage in India's financial capital that began on November 26, 2008, leaving 166 people dead and injuring more than 300 others.
India blamed the operation, which traumatised the nation, on the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), straining already tense diplomatic ties with its neighbour.
Judge M.L. Tahaliyani has spent the past month considering the case against 22-year-old Kasab, who faces a string of charges including "waging war against India", murder and offences under the explosives act.
Court starts next week
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The court reconvenes next week at the high-security prison where Kasab is being held, with the defendant facing a possible death sentence.
India has been praised for holding a public trial despite widespread calls in the immediate aftermath of the attacks for Kasab to be hanged without trial, and intimidation of lawyers prepared to represent him.
A guilty verdict and death sentence could lead to a lengthy appeal through the higher courts and an indeterminate wait on death row.
State prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has said there is "overwhelming" proof of Kasab's involvement, including fingerprint and DNA evidence, security camera footage and photographs of him carrying a powerful AK-47 assault rifle.
He and an accomplice are alleged to have carried out the bloodiest episode of the attacks, throwing hand grenades and opening fire at unsuspecting commuters on the concourse of Mumbai's main railway station.
52 people killed in violence
52 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in the carnage, which was part of a coordinated, 10-man assault on three luxury hotels, a restaurant popular with tourists and a Jewish centre.
The pair are also accused of gunning down a number of senior police officers as they fled the station and planting a high-explosive bomb in a taxi that killed the driver and his passenger.
Kasab initially denied the charges but made a shock confession last July, admitting that he and the other gunmen were trained, equipped and financed by the LeT, with help from elements in the Pakistan military.
However, in December he retracted the confession, claiming it was made under pressure, and that he was a victim of mistaken identity, with witnesses coached by police.
His lawyer, K.P. Pawar, has said the confession was "nothing but a manipulated and fabricated document of the prosecution" and that he had shown the "improbabilities" of the case against his client.
Pakistan calls to extradite Kasab
Pakistan has asked India to extradite Kasab after the verdict to be a key witness in its own trial of seven suspects alleged to have masterminded the attacks.
Despite maintaining capital punishment, which is reserved for what the Supreme Court in New Delhi has ruled are only the "rarest of rare" cases, India has only executed two people since 1998.
The last execution was in 2004, when a security guard was hanged in the eastern city of Kolkata for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl 14 years earlier.
