26/11 Accused Tahawwur Rana's Extradition Stay Request Rejected By US Court

The United States Supreme Court rejected an "emergency application" by 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana, which opposed his extradition to India claiming he will be tortured there as he is a Muslim of Pakistani origin.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, had filed an "Emergency Application For Stay" with the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.

In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates United States law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture." "The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks," the application said.

The application also said that his "severe medical conditions" render extradition to Indian detention facilities, a "de facto" death sentence in this case. It cited medical records from July 2024 showing that he has multiple "acute and life-threatening diagnoses", including multiple documented heart attacks, Parkinson's disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, and a history of chronic asthma, and multiple COVID-19 infections.

Rana, through an appeal, stated that "if a stay is not entered, there will be no review at all, and the US courts will lose jurisdiction, and the petitioner will soon be dead."

The action comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump in Washington, with the latter announcing the extradition of "very evil" Rana "to face justice in India" over his role in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

Eight locations in south Mumbai were targeted by terrorists on November 26, 2008 and rescue operations concluded on November 29. Rana, 64, is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.