WASHINGTON: A US court gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for a retired Pakistan Army doctor and businessman to be extradited to India where he is accused of involvement in the deadly 2008 attacks in the coastal city of Mumbai.
Tahawwur Rana, 62, has been serving a 14-year sentence announced in 2013 in Chicago for providing support to the Lashkar-i-Taiba, a proscribed religious organisation, blamed for the three-day rampage which killed 166 people. He was, however, not found to be complicit in the attacks.
Subsequently, in June 2020, India filed a complaint seeking the provisional arrest of Rana, who also holds Canadian nationality, with a view towards extradition. According to the Indian Express, the administration of Joe Biden “supported and approved” the extradition.
“The court has reviewed and considered all of the documents submitted in support of and in opposition to the request, and has considered the arguments presented at the hearing,” Judge Jacqueline Chooljian said in a 48-page court order on May 16, which was released Wednesday.
“Based on such review and consideration and for the reasons discussed herein, the Court makes the findings set forth below, and certifies to the Secretary of State of the United States the extractability of Rana on the charged offences that are the subject of the Request,” the judge wrote.
Rana’s attorney on the other hand denies the charges and has opposed the extradition.
Rana had also been found guilty in June 2011 of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper, a suspected plot hatched by Lashkar-i-Taiba that was never carried out.
During the hearings, attorneys for the US government argued that Rana was aware that his childhood friend David Headley, an American who is a suspect in the trial, was involved with Lashkar-i-Taiba, and that by assisting Headley and affording him cover for his activities, he was supporting the group and its associates.
Rana knew of Headley’s meetings, what was discussed, and the planning of the attacks, including some of the targets. The US government asserted that Rana was part of the conspiracy and there is probable cause that he committed the substantive crime of commission of a terrorist act.
