26/11 Mumbai attacks accused Tahawwur Rana faces extradition after US appeals court ruling

Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana faces the grim prospect of facing justice in India for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed around 175 people after a federal appeals court in the US quashed his appeal against extradition.

The California-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower federal court verdict permitting his extradition and ruled that the 1997 extradition treaty between India and the US covered his alleged offences.

Rana's only legal recourse now against extradition is to appeal in the Supreme Court where the chances of even getting a hearing are slim. According to the Justice Department, the Supreme Court hears less than 1 per cent of the appeals it receives.

Rana’s extradition would be a partial fulfillment of India’s attempts to get the US-based Lashkar-e-Taiba accomplices face trial in India as the US has refused to extradite Rana’s Pakistani-American accomplice Daood Gilani, who uses the name David Headley.

Headley had worked as an informant for the US government’s Drug Enforcement Agency and after admitting to 12 terrorism-related charges, he made a deal to cooperate with the US government on the condition that he will not be extradited.

A three-panel appeals court bench heard the habeas corpus petition against the Central California District Court judgement allowing Rana's extradition.

Judge Milan Smith, who wrote the opinion for the bench, said “India provided sufficient competent evidence” to support the initial order of a magistrate judge’s “finding of probable cause that Rana committed the charged crimes” to allow the extradition.

Rana, a Canadian citizen living in Chicago, was arrested in the US in 2009 for plotting to bomb a Danish newspaper, 'Jyllands-Posten', that published a controversial image of Prophet Mohammed.

He faced three main charges in a Chicago federal court relating to his involvement in the Danish case, providing support to Lashkar, and conspiring for the Mumbai attacks.

He was acquitted of the Mumbai attack charge, but convicted in the other two and sentenced to 14 years.

The appeals court ruled that his acquittal in the Mumbai attack charge did not affect his extradition because in India he faces several different charges.

The charges include conspiracy, waging war, murder, terrorism, and forgery, the judgement noted.

Rana was released after seven years on compassionate grounds during the Covid pandemic, following which India requested his extradition to face trial there, which the magistrate judge approved.

Rana is a former Pakistan Army doctor who set up an immigration service after immigrating to Canada.

The judgement mentioned Rana helping Headley get a five-year visa for India under the pretext of setting up a branch of his business there.

Headley used the visa to help plot the Lashkar terror rampage by surveilling the Taj Hotel and other targets. Headley had informed Rana about the surveillance activities, the judgement said.

Judge Smith also noted in the judgement that “Rana commended the terrorists who carried out the attacks and stated that the people of India ‘deserved it’."