26/11 accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana can be extradited: US court
Washington, August 17
In a huge setback to Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a US court has ruled that the Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman could be extradited to India where he is wanted for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar terrorists.
“The (India-US extradition) treaty permits Rana’s extradition,” the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in its ruling on Thursday. Ruling on an appeal filed by 63-year-old Rana, a panel of three judges affirmed the District Court in the Central District of California’s denial of his habeas corpus petition. Rana had challenged a magistrate judge’s certification of his as extraditable to India for his alleged participation in terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Rana, currently lodged in a jail in Los Angeles, faces charges for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attack and is known to be associated with Pakistani-American Lashkar terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the terror incident that hit India’s financial hub in 2008.
Rana has the option of appealing against the ruling.
In its ruling, the panel also held that India provided sufficient competent evidence to support the magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause that Rana committed the charged crimes.
Rana was tried in a US district court on charges related to his support for a terrorist outfit that carried out the Mumbai attacks. A jury convicted him of providing material support to a foreign terrorist outfit and conspiring to provide material support to a foiled plot to carry out terrorist attacks in Denmark.
However, the jury acquitted him of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism related to the attacks in India. After Rana served seven years in prison for those convictions and upon his compassionate release, India issued a request for his extradition to try him for his alleged participation in the Mumbai attacks.
A total of 166 persons, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai. — PTI
