Abu Salem, the Mumbai bomber who escaped death sentence

Salem leaves a court in New Delhi

Mumbai: Abu Salem has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. The terrorist, who was involved in the conspiracy and terror activities related to the blasts which resulted in the death of 257 people and 713 others were seriously injured, will spend the rest of his life in jail according to prosecution lawyer and special CBI counsel Deepak Salvi.

The prosecution did not demand death according to the norms of the extradition treaty under which Salem was brought back to India.

Senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam confirmed that even though the extradition treaty between India and Portugal related to Salem says that he cannot be given death or a jail term of more than 25 years, the terrorist will spend his entire life incarcerated as the treaty was not binding on the court.

Both Salvi and Nikam claimed that it is now up to the Indian government to commute Salem's term to 25 years. If the jail sentence is commuted to 25 years then Salem will spend 13 more years in jail as he has already been in prison for 12 years.

Under the Portuguese law, the maximum prison term for murder is 25 years. Salem was extradited to India on November 11, 2005.