Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, who’s sought in India for his involvement within the 2008 Mumbai terror assault, is extraditable beneath the plain provisions of the US-India extradition treaty, a US legal professional has instructed a federal courtroom.
Assistant US Legal professional, Prison Appeals Chief Bram Alden was making a closing argument earlier than the US Court docket of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the place Rana has appealed in opposition to the order by a US District Court docket in California that denied the writ of habeas corpus.
In Might, Rana, 63, had filed a writ of habeas corpus difficult the courtroom order, which acceded with the request of the US authorities that the 2008 Mumbai terror assaults accused be extradited to India.
“Rana is extraditable to India beneath the plain provisions of the treaty, and India has established possible trigger to prosecute him for his position in terrorist assaults that resulted in 166 deaths and 239 accidents,” Alden stated.
In his deposition earlier than the courtroom on June 5, Alden, who left the place final week, stated each India and america have agreed on the that means of the treaty provision, the non-bis provision in Article 6-1.
“Each events have now said what they meant, that that provision be interpreted based mostly on the weather of the offence and never based mostly on the conduct underlying these crimes. That’s per long-standing Supreme Court docket double jeopardy precedent,” he argued.
Rana, presently lodged in a jail in Los Angeles, faces fees for his position within the Mumbai assaults and is understood to be related to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of many predominant conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai assaults.
Rana has by no means even tried to argue that he can’t present that the identical parts India seeks to prosecute him for have been these he was prosecuted for in Chicago, Alden stated.
Representing Rana, legal professional John D Cline stated there is no competent proof supporting possible trigger.
Alden stated the proof is overwhelming to help possible trigger, that low customary that Rana knew about what was going to occur in India between 2006 and 2008.
“He met with (David) Headley a number of instances. There may be documentary proof that helps Hadley’s testimony, together with the pretend visa purposes that have been supplied in order that Hadley might function a fraudulent enterprise in India with the intention to conduct surveillance, with the intention to perform these terrorist assaults,” he stated.
“There was a cellphone name, after all, after the very fact the place Rana stated that he was knowledgeable about what was happening by one among their co-conspirators in Pakistan. And his reward for what was carried out in a ugly terrorist assault that killed 166 folks, injured 239 extra, and price India USD 1.5 billion,” Alden stated.
“It was primarily on the Taj Mahal Resort, however the terrorists attacked quite a lot of bars, eating places, and the Chabad Home. There have been different targets in India that they have been attacking in Mumbai. And it was their 9/11,” he stated.
“It was a devastating assault over the course of a number of days that resulted in 166 deaths, together with six People,” he added.
“That’s the reason India desires to prosecute this case and, beneath the extradition treaty, has each proper to take action,” Alden argued.
“The extent he desires to lift humanitarian issues and even issues in regards to the course of, the acquittal, the truth that he’s dealing with extradition, these all get raised and might be raised to the Secretary of State,” he stated in response to a query from the choose.
Representing Rana, Cline, in his deposition, stated the central query right here is whether or not the “identified bis in idem provision” within the US-India extradition treaty, the double jeopardy provision, permits the extradition of a person who was acquitted by an American jury for prosecution out of the country on that very same conduct.
“That is the query right here. The reply to that query isn’t any, and the reply isn’t any for 4 principal causes,” Cline stated as he listed the 4 provisions.
A complete of 166 folks, together with six People, have been killed within the 2008 Mumbai terror assaults by which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a greater than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing folks at iconic and important places of Mumbai.