Mumbai Terror Attack Accused Tahawwur Rana Challenges Extradition to India at US Supreme Court

Washington: Having lost his legal battle in all the lower courts, Mumbai attack accused Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, has now knocked on the doors of the US Supreme Court against his extradition to India.

India has sought Rana's extradition for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Rana had last reached out to the US Court of Appeals for the North Circuit in San Francisco after losing the legal battle in lower courts and several federal courts.

On September 23, the circuit court threw out his petition to give a stay on the decisions of the other courts that approved the move of the Department of State to extradite him to India. On November 13, Rana filed a “petition for a writ of certiorari” before the US Supreme Court.

In a long battle, this is Rana’s last legal chance not to be extradited to India.

In his "petitions for a writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit” in this case, Rana makes the same argument that he was tried and acquitted in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) on charges relating to the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai.

"India now seeks to extradite him for trial on charges based on the identical conduct at issue in the Chicago case,” it says.

The petition says that if the “elements” standard applies, he very likely will be sent to India to be put on trial a second time for the same conduct, with conviction and a death sentence ominously on the horizon for him.  “In addition, resolution of this issue will have a considerable and increasing impact, as the growing globalisation of criminal law enforcement and international cooperation, which in turn has led to a dramatic rise in extraditions, will affect more and more individuals and nations going forward,” it said.

Rana faces charges for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attack and is known to be associated with Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the terror incident that hit India’s financial hub in 2008.

A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 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.