He is currently detained at Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles
Washington: A federal US court has allowed Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana time till November 9 to file a motion against his extradition to India to face a trial in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, a PTI report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
In August, Rana, 62, had appealed before the Ninth Circuit Court against the order by a US District Court in the Central District of California that denied the writ of habeas corpus.
The Ninth Circuit Court on Tuesday agreed to his request for more time to file his motion which was initially set for October 10.
According to the latest court order, Rana’s brief is now due on November 9 and the government’s answer will be due on December 11, 2023.
Currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles, Rana faces multiple charges for his role in the Mumbai attacks and is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 strikes.
Following his request, Judge Fischer from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had asked Rana to submit his argument before October 10 and the US Government was asked to submit its response by November 8.
Judge Fischer wrote that Rana has shown that he is likely to suffer significant irreparable harm in the absence of a stay.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations of Mumbai.
He will be extradited to India for a trial on serious crimes with no hope for a review of his arguments or hope for his return to the United States. The government admits this but then argues that because “this claimed irreparable harm applies categorically to any fugitive who seeks a stay of extradition pending appeal,” it does not count, the judge had said.
Earlier, US attorney John J Lulejian had appealed before the district court to deny Rana’s ex-parte application for a stay of extradition pending appeal and argued that the stay would cause “unwarranted delay” in the United States’ fulfilment of its obligations to India
“Accordingly, the United States respectfully requests that the court deny his ex parte application,” the US attorney wrote.
Lulejian argued that the district court should deny Rana’s request for a stay for the threshold reason that he has failed to demonstrate that he is likely to obtain a reversal of this Court’s decision in the Ninth Circuit.
In his ex-parte application for a stay, Rana has made no showing whatsoever, let alone a strong showing, that he is likely to succeed on the merits of his appeal, he argued. Indeed, he simply states that he seeks a stay “to permit his non-bis in idem argument to be heard by the court of appeals.”
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations of Mumbai.
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