Jury selected in Mumbai attack trial of Rana in Chicago

By Uttara Choudhury New York: Twelve jurors and six substitutes were selected for the trial of Chicago businessman Pakistan-born Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who is accused of helping American David Headley find targets in Mumbai for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to attack. The trial is being watched closely as Rana and Headley’s testimonies may give new evidence of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency being complicit in the Mumbai attacks. [caption id=“attachment_12142” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Attorney Charles Swift says his client Tahawwur Hussain Rana is innocent and his crime is that he befriended David Coleman Headley. Maura Axelrod-Pool/Getty Images”]  [/caption] “A lot of revelations will come to light during the trial,” Rana’s attorney, Charles Swift told Firstpost, while expressing satisfaction with the jury which is made up mostly of minorities and women. Prosecutors declined to comment on the jury. Over the next four to six weeks, detailed allegations of ISI involvement in terrorism are likely to be made public in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, where prosecutors earlier quietly charged Major Iqbal who works with the ISI with helping to plot the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Attorneys spent three days whittling the jury to eight women and four men, plus four male and two female understudies, from the nearly 100 that showed up in court for jury duty. Rana’s lawyers hand-picked jury members who didn’t distrust Islam or have any preconceived notions about the religion after the rigorous screening. The court ordered that the identities of jury members not be disclosed for their safety. The curtain will go up on Rana’s trial with opening statements on 23 May. “I believe we got a jury of Dr Rana’s peers, people who can understand his position as an immigrant,” said Swift, “people who can understand Dr Rana’s position as a minority in his community and as a businessman and a family man." Rana is charged with three counts of giving “material support” to terrorists and faces a possible life sentence if convicted. A former military doctor in Pakistan, he is charged with letting Headley use his Chicago business — First World Immigration Services Inc. on Devon Avenue — as a cover when Headley travelled to India five times to scout for sites to attack. Rana’s defence team is expected to make the case that Rana thought Headley was assisting the ISI with a harmless operation to spy on Indian Hindu extremist groups. He didn’t have a clue that something as macabre as the Mumbai assault was being plotted instead by the ISI. Swift earlier told Firstpost the Chicago trial would show that the Mumbai plot was hatched in Pakistan. “When everything comes together in the trial people will see that Dr Rana thought he was being patriotic in helping out an intelligence service. He thought that what he was doing was right. The trial will show that Dr Rana had no idea of the tragic events that were going to unfold. He was the dupe of others.” The US media said any new evidence of “ISI malfeasance” that emerges from the trial will reverberate in Washington as the US presses Pakistan for answers about whether the ISI played a role in harbouring Osama bin Laden. Republican Congressman Frank Wolf, chairman of the House Appropriations Sub-committee, who is following the Mumbai case, wants an independent study group to review South Asia policy top-to-bottom. “It’s very, very troubling,” Wolf told ProPublica. “Keep in mind that we’ve given billions of dollars to the Pakistani government. In light of what’s taken place with bin Laden, the whole issue raises serious problems and questions.” In the Chicago criminal case, US prosecutors have also charged six others, including five with ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba. All of them are fugitives, leaving Rana the lone defendant to face trial in Chicago for the Mumbai attacks. Sajid Mir, the Mumbai mastermind whose voice was caught on tape directing the three-day mayhem by phone from Pakistan, also has links to the ISI. He remains at large in Pakistan with Major Iqbal and the other wanted men. Prosecutors have declined to comment on what plea bargain has been negotiated with Headley who has pleaded guilty to helping with the Mumbai attacks. “David Headley is now a star witness and everyone else is on the run! The US has literally made a deal with the devil to convict a very small man,” said Swift. Swift’s previous case involving Bin Laden’s driver is already famous in legal circles and the rights to the story were bought recently by George Clooney who is almost certain to play Swift in the movie.