New York, May 18: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will feel compelled to approve the extradition of Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana to India as Washington is “joined at the hip” with every nation that suffers from foreign terrorism, according to a prominent Indian-American attorney.
In a major victory for India, US Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian of the US District Court of the Central District of California issued an order on Wednesday, saying 26/11 Mumbai attacks accused Rana “should be extradited to India” under the extradition treaty between India and the US.
“Based on the foregoing, the court concludes that Rana is extraditable for the offences for which extradition has been requested and on which the United States is proceeding and hereby certifies this finding to the United States Secretary of State,” the order said.
Reacting to the 62-year-old Rana’s extradition order, Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra told PTI that Chooljian’s “thorough and scholarly” Certification of Extraditability and Order of Commitment lays out in “horrifying, albeit, objective details, the cold and calculated essence of the campaign of terror that was unleashed upon India”.
He said the order is “transparent about our legal protocol – given our bilateral extradition treaty – that is needed to pass constitutional muster in our lofty American federal courts.”
Batra noted that the decision now legally goes from a court of law to the Executive Branch’s Secretary of State Blinken who will “feel compelled to approve the extradition request as 9/11 was worse than Pearl Harbor and we, the United States are joined at the hip with every nation that suffers from foreign terror.”
He stressed that nations must secure public safety, even as they have the right to wage war.
“Terror, however, beyond being cheap and evil, is unlawful as non-state actors – even if supported by a state – are targeting innocent civilians (a war crime, even amongst nations at war) to cause maximum fear, death and destruction,” he said.
Batra noted that Rana has received significant judicial consideration over almost two years since the hearing, and can still seek, as a right, a direct appeal to the Circuit Court.
Batra said he fully expects the Circuit Court will affirm the certification and extradition order.
“Any further plea for leave to be heard by our Supreme Court, I expect will be denied, unless a legal principle gets identified along the way making it worthy for SCOTUS to hear and determine Rana’s transfer to India, where he will be extradited, and receive yet more due process under India’s Constitution,” he said.
“When the process is concluded in India, what is painstakingly detailed as probable cause now, will have much more evidence of the horror and evil, and in so doing, show why fighting terror is a unifying force in the comity of sovereign nations and in the UN,” he said.
Batra said justice takes time, and in doing so, nations juxtapose their nobility, embedded in law, with the shameful evil of terror.
The order noted that the court cannot certify Rana’s extradition unless there is probable cause to believe he committed the offences for which extradition is sought.
Citing its reasoning in detail, the order states “Accordingly, the court finds there is probable cause to believe Rana committed the charged offences as to which extradition has been sought and should be extradited to India under the extradition Treaty between the United States and India.”
In one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in the country’s history, 166 people were killed and over 300 injured as 10 heavily-armed terrorists from Pakistan created mayhem in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
Nine Pakistani terrorists were killed by the Indian security forces. Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist who was captured alive. He was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012 after a trial. (PTI)
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