A US court on Thursday sentenced Tahawwur Rana, a Chicago businessman, to 14 years in jail for providing material support to the 2008 Mumbai carnage perpetrators and planning another terrorist strike.
Prosecutors had sought 30 years. Rana was found guilty in June, 2011 of providing support Mumbai attack terrorists and conspiring to provide help for a terrorist attack on a Denmark daily.
“This certainly was a dastardly plot,” said US district judge Harry Leinenweber at the sentencing.
On his release, Rana, a Canadian citizen, will be on five years of supervised freedom.
In both instance he had worked with childhood friend Pakistani American David Coleman Headley, who is to be sentenced by the same court on January 24.
“This serious prison sentence should go a long way towards convincing would-be terrorists that they can’t hide behind the scenes, lend support to the violent aims of terrorist organizations, and escape detection and punishment,” said Gary S Shapiro, acting United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Rana had helped Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley scout the Mumbai targets hit by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in November 2008, which resulted in the death of 164 people.
He had allowed Headley to use the cover of his immigration business as a front for his scouting trips carried out on Lashkar’s behalf, supervised by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.
Headley has confessed to his role in the attacks and deposed in Rana’s trial, giving vivid accounts of the plot, the perpetrators and the extent of Pakistani involvement.
He pleaded guilty in March 2010 in a deal that saves him from death sentence or being sent to India to stand trial. Indian officials, however, were allowed to question him.
The prosecution had argued for Rana’s conviction for a larger role in the Mumbai attack, but the jury only found him guilty of proving support to a banned outfit, Lashkar. – hindustantimes.com
Tags: Lashkar-e-Taiba, Mumbai attacks:, Tahawwur Rana
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