11/26 Mumbai attack accused Tahawwur Rana asks US Supreme Court to challenge extradition to India

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

India sought Rana’s extradition for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Rana last contacted the US Court of Appeals for the Northern Circuit in San Francisco after losing the legal battle in lower courts and several federal courts .

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

In a long battle, this is Rana’s last legal chance to avoid extradition 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 the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) on charges related to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

“India is now seeking to extradite him to stand trial on charges based on identical conduct at issue in the Chicago case,” it said.

The petition says that if the “elements” standard is applied, he will most likely be sent to India to stand trial a second time for the same conduct, with a conviction and a looming death sentence on the horizon for him.

“Furthermore, solving this problem will have a considerable and increasing impact, as the increasing globalization of criminal law enforcement and international cooperation, which in turn has led to a dramatic increase in extraditions, will affect more and more people and nations in the future,” he said.

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

A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the Mumbai terror attacks, in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid siege for more than 60 hours, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.