Chicago, May 12: The trial of Pakistani-Canadian terror suspect Tahawwur Rana, charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks, is expected to begin on November 1 and go on for a tentative four weeks, with a US district court judge here today saying the trial process should start “sooner rather than later.”
During Rana’s status hearing, Judge Harry Leinenweber set November 1 as a “tentative” date for commencing the trial of the 49-year-old terror suspect after both prosecution and defence lawyers agreed to it.
Later talking to PTI, Rana’s lawyer Patrick Blegen said the “government has estimated the trial to continue for four weeks but that is a tentative estimation”.
“There is only one defendant. There are other defendants but the government does not have them in its custody. So it is a one-defendant trial. The prosecution is the one who has to put on its case, so it would know better than I as to how long the trial last. The government has said four weeks is a tentative estimation,” Blegen said.
Rana’s co-accused LeT operative David Coleman Headley had pleaded guilty in March to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks. However, Rana had stuck to his ‘not guilty’ plea during the last hearing.
–PTI