Washington: A US court has rejected the habeas corpus petition of Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, accused of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, following which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will extradite him to India. The way has been paved for the issue of certificates to extradite.
In an order dated August 10, United States District Judge Dale S. Fisher in the Central District of Columbia wrote, “The Court, by a separate order, dismisses Tahawwur Rana’s petition for habeas corpus. However, Rana has filed a petition in the Ninth Circuit Court against this order, seeking a stay on his extradition to India pending a hearing.
Rana had filed a habeas corpus petition in June challenging a US court order that had accepted the US government’s request to extradite him to India. Judge Fischer said in his order that Rana has made two basic arguments in his plea.
The first argument, they said, is that he cannot be extradited under the treaty because India wants to prosecute him for those acts for which he was charged and acquitted by a US court, and The second argument is that the government has not proved that there is probable cause to believe that Rana committed the offenses for which he is to be prosecuted in India.
The judge rejected both arguments. Following the judge’s order, Rana’s attorneys Patrick Blegan and John D. Kline filed an appeal against it in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The US government had requested in June to reject the habeas corpus petition filed by Rana.
In India, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing Rana’s role in the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks by terrorists of Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. A terrorist named Ajmal Kasab was caught alive during these attacks, who was hanged in India on 21 November 2012. The rest of the terrorists were killed by the security forces during the attacks. A total of 166 people, including six American citizens, lost their lives in the Mumbai terror attacks.
