Chicago:
The trial of Tahawwur Rana, co-accused with Pakistani-American David Headley in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, begins today in a Chicago court.
Fifty-year-old Rana is accused of providing financial and logistical support to terrorists who carried out the deadly Mumbai terror attack in November, 2008. A 12-member jury will hear the case.
Rana is also accused of helping a former schoolmate serve as a scout for Pakistani militants blamed in the three-day rampage on Mumbai.
Rana case has sparked off immense international media attention.
To make their case, federal prosecutors may detail alleged connections between Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Their star witness could be David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty last year to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba and has told interrogators that the ISI provided training and funds for the attack.
Headley told authorities that Rana provided him with cover for a series of scouting missions he conducted in Mumbai. Headley also told interrogators that he was in contact with another militant, who has ties to Al Qaeda, as part of a separate plot to bomb a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons in 2005 that angered many Muslims.
Some experts expect the trial will detail workings of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which experts say was created with ISI's help in the 1980s as a proxy fighting force to battle with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Counter-terrorism officials say the group since then has gained strength partly because of the ISI, possibly with the help of retired officers. Pakistani officials have denied any ties with the group.
US District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber hjad earlier said that the trial is expected to last about a month.
Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years, owns Chicago-based First World Immigration Services. Prosecutors say Rana allowed Headley to open a First World office in Mumbai and travel as a supposed agency representative. He also allegedly helped Headley make travel arrangements as part of the plot, which ultimately never occurred, against the Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Rana, who was arrested in 2009, is charged with providing material support for terrorism in India and Denmark. In court documents, Rana's attorneys have said he believed Headley was working for Pakistani intelligence. Rana's attorneys have said part of their defense will be to show that Headley used his connections with the ISI to explain what he was doing.
Some experts doubt much new will come from the trial and have called Headley an unreliable witness. They say prosecutors will work hard to keep sensitive information secret. Headley reached a plea deal with prosecutors in the terrorism case in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and previously had been an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration after a drug conviction.
Details of Headley's potential testimony were revealed last year in an Indian government report detailing what he'd allegedly told Indian investigators during questioning in Chicago. In the report, Headley is cited describing how the ISI was deeply involved in planning the Mumbai attacks and how he reported to a man known only as "Major Iqbal," whom he called his Lashkar "handler." But some experts have suggested Iqbal could be a retired ISI officer, or that he may not even exist.
Rana is the seventh name on the indictment, and the only defendant in custody. Among the six others charged in absentia are Major Iqbal" and Sajid Mir, allegedly another Lashkar-e-Taiba supervisor who also "handled" Headley. Also indicted is Ilyas Kashmiri, who also is believed by Western intelligence to be Al Qaeda's operational chief in Pakistan.
(With AP inputs)