Rana guilty of aiding LeT. Acquited in 26/11 Mumbai attack case

Mangalore Today / PTI

CHICAGO, USA (Reuters) : A U.S. jury on Thursday found Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana guilty of providing support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for the 2008 assault on Mumbai, but not guilty of taking part in the attack.

In a mixed verdict, the jury also found Rana, 50, a former Pakistan Army doctor with Canadian citizenship, guilty of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper, a plot hatched by the militant group but never carried out.

 

In the trial, held in U.S. federal court in Chicago, the key witness -- Rana’s childhood friend, David Headley -- implicated Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, in the Mumbai attack which killed 166 people.

Headley admitted scouting targets for the Mumbai attackers sent by the LeT, the militant group behind both plots and designated by the U.S. State Department a terrorist organization.

The judge gave both sides 60 days to file post-trial motions and did not set a sentencing date. Rana faces a maximum of 15 years in prison for each of the two counts.

U.S. Justice Department officials said the case was not over.

"I’m hoping there are other defendants ... that other people are brought to justice, both here and overseas," said Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago who has led prosecutions of several Islamic militants.

Fitzgerald would not say what steps might be taken to track down the six Pakistanis charged in the U.S. case, including Headley’s main contact with the ISI, known only as Major Iqbal. None is in custody.

The case revealed contacts between ISI and Islamic militants who are fighting India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. It comes on the heels of the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. special forces that worsened already strained U.S.-Pakistani ties.

Headley testified that other ISI officers were helpful to him and trained him in spycraft, but that he suspected ISI "higher-ups" did not know of the Mumbai plot.

Rana, 50, was charged with supporting the plots to attack Mumbai and Denmark, and of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba.