US Court Denies Stay Request for Extradition of 26/11 Accused Tahawwur Rana

New Delhi:

The United States Supreme Court has rejected an “emergency application” filed by Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which opposed his extradition to India. Rana had claimed that he would face torture in India due to his identity as a Muslim of Pakistani origin.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani descent, had submitted an “Emergency Application For Stay” to the Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.

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

The application also highlighted Rana’s “severe medical conditions,” claiming that extradition to Indian detention facilities would amount to a “de facto” death sentence. It referenced medical records from July 2024, which indicate he suffers from multiple “acute and life-threatening diagnoses,” including documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, chronic asthma, and multiple COVID-19 infections.

Rana, in his appeal, stated that “if a stay is not entered, there will be no review at all, and the U.S. courts will lose jurisdiction, and the petitioner will soon be dead.”

This development comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, during which Trump announced the extradition of the “very evil” Rana “to face justice in India” for his alleged role in the 26/11 attacks, which claimed 166 lives.

On November 26, 2008, terrorists targeted eight locations in South Mumbai, and rescue operations continued until November 29. Rana, 64, is known to have ties with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the key conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.