Rana seeks stay of extradition, says will be tortured since he is Pak-origin Muslim
New York: Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana has moved an “emergency application” with the US Supreme Court against his extradition to India, claiming that he will be tortured there since he is a Muslim of Pakistani origin.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.
Rana has filed an “Emergency Application For Stay” with the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.
President Donald Trump last month announced that his administration approved the extradition of “very evil” Rana, wanted by Indian probe agencies for his role in the 26/11 attacks, “to face justice in India”. This followed the rejection of his review petition by the Supreme Court in January.
Now, Rana is seeking a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of a petition he filed on February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates United States law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture “because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
“The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities, a “de facto” death sentence in this case.
It cited medical records from July 2024 showing that he has multiple “acute and life-threatening diagnoses”, including multiple documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, and a history of chronic asthma, and multiple COVID-19 infections.
“Accordingly, petitioner certainly has raised a credible, if not compelling, factual case that there are indeed substantial grounds for believing he would be in danger of torture if surrendered to Indian authorities.
“Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order.”
The US Supreme Court denied Rana’s petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
