Tahawwur Rana Yet to Board Flight to India, US Exploring Options

The State Department is "evaluating next steps" related to last week's Supreme Court of India decision that upheld Tahawwur Rana's extradition, clearing the way for him to finally face justice in relation to his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Like Pakistani-ancestry person David Coleman Headley, serving long prison sentences in an American jail after he had pleaded guilty for his involvement with the terrorists involved in 2008's terrorist attack after a deal struck with American authorities that guards against extradition, is Rana of Pakistani ancestry.

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision, and consistent with applicable US law, the Department of State is currently evaluating next steps in this case," a spokesperson for the agency said in response to an IANS request for information on the next steps following the court order and when is he likely to be despatched to India.

We have long supported India's efforts to ensure that those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks are brought to justice," the spokesperson added.

Indeed, the US has been supportive of Indian efforts to bring perpetrators of the attacks that killed 167 people, including six Americans, and hundreds injured.

This has put a lot of pressure on Pakistan, who hosted the Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists and trained them in the country's Intelligence agency, to deliver perpetrators into justice.

This also helped the case of India before the UN Security Council regarding the declaration of Masood Azhar, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba as an international terrorist head of a permanent group of member which hindered Chinese effort to block that move.

For now, though, it remains unclear whether Rana will end up on a plane to India anytime soon.

Rana was taken into custody by US police in October 2009—two weeks after Headley was arrested—on three counts, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in India, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark, and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to a US court document.

Rana was convicted June 9, 2011, by a jury of the terrorism conspiracy charge related to Denmark and providing material support to Lashkar, but he was acquitted of the terrorism conspiracy related to the Mumbai attacks.

He was sentenced by the district court in 2013 to 14 years in prison. But after serving half of the sentence he applied for and was granted compassionate release in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

India had been moving, in the meantime, against him. On 28 August 2018, a Mumbai court in August 2018 issued a warrant for Rana's arrest on charges relating to the attacks, including, according to a US court document, (1) conspiracy to (a) wage war, (b) commit murder, (c) commit forgery for the purpose of cheating, (d) use as genuine a forged document or electronic record, and (e) commit a terrorist attack; (2) waging war; (3) murder; and (4) committing a terrorist act (2). India then demanded Rana's extradition.

One day after the compassionate release order was granted for Rana, the US Department of Justice filed a complaint for his provisional arrest in response to an extradition request from India.

A US court that handles extradition cases denied his claims in May 2023 and certified his extradition, dismissing his claims, according to the court document, (1) his extradition to India was barred under the Non Bis in Idem provision of the Extradition Treaty Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of India (the Treaty) and (2) India's evidence against Rana failed to establish probable cause that Rana committed the offenses for which the certification of extradition was sought.

Basically, Rana had argued, he cannot be extradited to face charges on which he had been acquitted in the US.

Every court has rejected Rana’s claims and he may have exhausted his legal options.