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Rana, 59, was recently released from jail on compassionate ground after he told a US court that he has tested positive for the COVID-19. He was rearrested in Los Angeles on June 10 following an extradition request by India, where he is a declared fugitive, they said.
Assistant US Attorney John J Lulejian told the court that the Indian government, as per the bilateral Extradition Treaty signed in 1997, has requested the arrest and detention of Tahawwur Rana with a view towards his extradition.
Mr Lulejian said India has informed the US that Tahawwur Rana is being prosecuted for a number of offences, including the conspiracy to commit murder. He made an initial court appearance on June 11.
On Friday, US District Judge Jacqueline Chooljian in the US District Court, Central District of California, scheduled his bond hearing for June 30. His attorney has been asked to submit his plea by June 22 and the US government's response is due by June 26.
Lulejian said that the offences for which Tahawwur Rana's arrest warrant was issued are covered by the India-US Extradition Treaty.
Who is Tahawwur Rana?
Tahawwur Ranu, a Pakistani born Canadian was convicted in Chicago of providing support for the Pakistani terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the India attack, and for supporting a never-carried-out plot to attack a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The cartoons angered many Muslims because pictures of the prophet are prohibited in Islam.
Jurors cleared Rana of a more serious charge of providing support to the 10 men who carried out the attacks in Mumbai, India's largest city, that killed 166, injured nearly 240, and caused $1.5 billion in damage.
According to the federal prosecutors, between 2006 and November 2008, Rana conspired with his childhood friend David Coleman Headley, also known as “Daood Gilani," and others located in Pakistan to assist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harakat ul-Jihad-e-Islami, both U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, to plan and carry out the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
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Prosecutors said Rana knew Headley had trained as a terrorist. Headley shared information on the scouting missions he conducted in Mumbai and of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where gunmen later slaughtered dozens of people.
Headley, who was born in the US to a Pakistani father and American mother, said his hatred of India dated to his childhood when his school was bombed by Indian military planes during a war between the countries in 1971.
Headley, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. As part of his plea deal, he can't be extradited to India.
The 2008 Mumbai attack was one of India’s most horrific terrorist attacks in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured as 10 heavily-armed terrorists from Pakistan created mayhem in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive, was hanged to death on November 21, 2012.
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