US: Rana pleads not guilty to plotting 26/11

Pakistani-Canadian LeT operative Tahawwur Hussain Rana has appeared in a Chicago court for his arraignment and pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiring to provide material support to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and a terror plot in Denmark.

Rana, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit with his hands and legs shackled, appeared before US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys and entered a plea of not guilty to the three counts of charges against him in the superseding indictment returned on January 14 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

During the arraignment that lasted about five minutes, Pakistani-Canadian Rana was informed about the charges against him and that he faces a potential life sentence. He took an oath before pleading not guilty.

Rana, 49, responded briefly when the judge asked him to spell out his full name, age and date of birth and whether he understood the charges against him.

He has been in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre since his arrest in October last year and will remain detained in federal custody. A status hearing has been scheduled for February 24 before US District Judge Harry Leinenweber.

Rana and his childhood friend David Coleman Headley, also arrested by the FBI, have been indicted on charges of plotting the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Co-accused LeT operative David Coleman Headley's lawyer John Theis was also present at the hearing. None of Rana's family members were present during the hearing.

Before the hearing began, Rana spoke briefly with his lawyer. Pakistani-American Headley will appear in the same court on January 27 for his arraignment.

Speaking to reporters after the arraignment, Rana's lawyer Patrick Blegen said, "We have entered a plea of not guilty and are looking foward to contesting the allegations. I am optimistic that we can fight these charges and clear Rana's name".

Blegen has already filed four-five motions seeking his client be released on bail but a bond has been denied to Rana on the grounds that he may use his financial resources and knowledge in immigration law to flee the country. Blegen, however said Rana is not a risk of flight and "has very strong family ties" to Chicago.

"This is not the kind of case where he could sneak across the border and live in some foreign country for the rest of his life. His desire is to fight these charges and clear his name and not to disappear," he said.

To clear his name "Rana has to stay here" and not escape, which would only make his family suffer, Blegen added.

The attorney further said he does not believe the new indictment raises the stakes for his client, who already was facing a significant prison term. 

Blegen has also filed a motion in court asking the judge to appoint him as Rana's attorney so he can be paid with public funds. Rana is not indigent, he said, but "virtually no one" can afford a defense in such a massive federal case, he said.

"Virtually no one can afford to defend themselves in a large federal criminal case like this," Blegen said adding that Rana does not have enough money to fund his defence, especially in case like this.

"I do not know how long the trial is going to be, may be a couple of months or more."

In its 12-count superseding indictment against the two Chicagoans on January 14, the jury gave extensive details of the planning of the Mumbai attack by the LeT and how its leaders guided the terrorists during the four-day siege beginning November 26, 2008.

The 12-count superseding indictment contained the identical charges that were filed against Headley on December 7, 2009, while adding Rana as a defendant in three of the counts charging material support of the terrorism plots in Denmark and India, as well as in support of the designated foreign terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistan-based terrorist linked to al-Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military, were also indicted along with Headley and Rana.