Mumbai Attacls Trial Wraps Up in Chicago

Posted June 7th, 2011 at 5:50 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

A jury in Chicago heard closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of a Pakistani-born Canadian national, Tahawwur Rana, who is charged with helping plan the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Peters told jurors it was clear that Rana knew and helped confessed conspirator David Coleman Headley scout targets in India's financial hub before the attacks. She said the two were recorded by the FBI shortly after the Mumbai attacks discussing the raid and possible new targets in India and Denmark.

Headley, a Pakistani-American, was the U.S. government's star witness in the federal terrorism trial. In testimony last month, he said the Pakistani terrorist group that carried out the attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba, received help from Pakistani intelligence.

Headley said he received weapons and other training from Lashkar, and that the group and Pakistani intelligence “coordinated with each other.”

India has long accused Pakistan of harboring the militants who carried out the Mumbai attacks.

Headley has already pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. He agreed to testify against Rana as part of a plea bargain and told jurors he used Rana's immigration firm as a cover when he traveled to India.

Rana has lived in Chicago for years and has denied the charges against him.