Thaindian News

Chicago, June 10 (IANS) Pakistan-born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana has been found not guilty on charges that he assisted in carrying out the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, but was convicted of helping Lashkar-e-Taiba, held responsible for the carnage.

He was also convicted by a jury in federal court here Thursday for his role in a thwarted plot targeting a Danish newspaper that printed controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, according to Chicago Sun Times.

Rana faces up to 30 years in prison for the two guilty counts.

Rana allowed convicted Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, aka Daood Gilani, to use his immigration business, First World Immigration Services as a cover so Headley could scout targets for the deadly plots, prosecutors said.

“Tahawwur Rana provided valuable cover and support to David Headly, knowing that Headley and others were plotting attacks overseas,” Todd Hinnen, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement issued after the verdicts.

But defence attorneys said Rana, 50, had no knowledge that his Pakistani military school friend was scheming overseas.
After the verdict, Rana’s attorneys said they were very disappointed with the two guilty verdicts, but said they were glad he was not found guilty in connection with the deadly Mombai attacks.

One attorney cited by the Sun Times told the media the jury apparently believed that LeT was also involved in the Danish plot.

After the trial, jurors told Judge Harry Leinenweber that they did not want to make any public comments, the judge said.

One of his daughters cried in the courtroom after the verdicts were read, which came after two days of deliberations, the Sun Times said.

During the two week trial, prosecution’s star witness Headley, who has pleaded guilty for his roles in the Mumbai attacks and the Denmark plot, claimed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and LeT separately gave him identical instructions for scouting locations for the Mumbai attack.

“They coordinated with each other,” Headley said, describing what he believed to be a cosy relationship between LeT and the Pakistani spy agency.

“ISI provided assistance to Lashkar” through military and financial assistance and moral support, he continued.

Headley also said he met with Ilyas Kashmiri, believed to be a senior Al Qaeda member to discuss an attack on the newspaper offices of Jyllands-Posten, whose 2005 depictions of the Prophet Muhammad sparked protests in the Muslim world.