Tahawwur Rana Fights Extradition to India for 26/11 Mumbai Attacks
Convicted terrorist Tahawwur Rana from Chicago is seeking immediate release from prison and is fighting an extradition request from India. According to US Court of Appeals records, assistant US attorney and Criminal Appeals chief Bram Alden argued that Rana is extraditable under the US-India extradition treaty. Alden stressed that US lower courts have already cleared Rana’s extradition to India and that they are absolutely ‘right.’
“Lower courts here got it right. Rana is extraditable to India under the plain provisions of the treaty and India has established probable cause to prosecute him for his role in terrorist attacks that resulted in 166 deaths and 239 injuries,” Alden said in his opening argument.
Less than a year after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the FBI in Chicago arrested Rana. The accused terrorist was operating a travel agency in Chicago 15 years ago, when he and his friend David Coleman Headley, scouted Mumbai locations and landing zones to carry out the attack. According to investigators, Pakistani terrorists who carried out the deadly attack worked off a blueprint that Rana had a hand in producing. Rana and Headley both are charged with aiding the terror plot. Headley cooperated with investigators, while Rana fought it and lost.
After serving a 14-year prison sentence, Rana was about to be freed from a US prison when India requested his extradition. Alden stressed in his argument that there is documentary evidence that supports that Rana provided material support to the Pakistani terror group that carried out the attack. “Rana said that he was informed about what was going on by one of their co-conspirators in Pakistan and his praise for what was carried out in a gruesome terrorist attack that killed 166 people injured 239 more and cost India USD 1.5 million,” Alden informed the judges.
The US attorney also reminded the court how the ‘Mumbai Massacre’, known as India’s 9/11 was a several-day siege of Mumbai by terrorists from Pakistan. “The terrorists attacked a number of bars, restaurants, the Chabad House, there were other targets in India that they were attacking in Mumbai. It was their (India’s) 911. It was a devastating attack over the course of multiple days. That resulted as I have said in 166 deaths including six Americans, that is why India wants to prosecute this case, and under the extradition treaty and has every right to do so,” Alden strongly asserted.
Last month, according to the court records, Rana’s attorney argued why he shouldn’t be sent to India and face the judicial system for the Mumbai Massacre. Rana’s defence has alleged double jeopardy or being tried twice for the same crime, which is barred by the US Constitution, as well as the near certainty of Rana’s death while in foreign custody. Rana’s lawyers are making the best arguments they can for why he shouldn’t be extradited. Rana remains in custody, assigned to a federal prison in Los Angeles.
