By IANS,
Washington : US prosecutors are expected to file charges against Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, for alleged involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and a scheme to attack a Danish newspaper, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the leading US financial daily said Wednesday it wasn’t clear what charges the indictment would contain. But federal prosecutors alleged in the complaint filed last October that Rana knew of the Mumbai attacks in advance.
Rana has already been accused of plotting with Pakistani American terror suspect David Headley and Pakistani militants to attack the offices of the newspaper Jyllands Posten which in 2005 published satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Rana in October, and the government faces a Thursday deadline to file an indictment.
Investigators homed in on Rana’s alleged involvement after Headley began cooperating with investigators following his October arrest, the Journal said citing people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors allege Headley travelled to Mumbai to scout locations targeted in the attack, which killed more than 160 people. Court documents introduced in Rana’s case alleged he was in Mumbai and travelled to Dubai five days before the attack.
Government affidavits filed in the Rana and Headley cases portrayed Rana, 49, as deeply involved in discussing possible attack targets with Pakistani militants.
Attorneys for both men, who are in federal custody in Chicago, have denied all charges. Patrick Blegen, representing Rana, has argued his client should be freed on bond. “Rana categorically denies involvement in the tragic events in Mumbai of November 2008,” Blegen said in November.
In early 2008, federal prosecutors said, Rana and Headley began to communicate via multiple email accounts, with Headley sending some messages from Pakistan.
Rana arranged a number of Headley’s trips abroad, including to Pakistan and Denmark, federal prosecutors said. Headley sometimes portrayed himself to border agents as an employee of Rana’s immigration firm.
In November 2008, federal prosecutors said, Rana met in Dubai with a former Pakistani military officer, nicknamed Pasha, whom US prosecutors have charged with conspiracy in the plot against the Danish newspaper. In September 2009, Rana and Headley appeared to discuss how Rana learned from Pasha about the Mumbai plot, according to translations of the conversations wiretapped by the government and cited by US prosecutors.
In December, Blegen told a federal judge that prosecutors took the conversation out of context and Rana didn’t know about the Mumbai attacks before they occurred.