Chicago: A decision to release Tahawwur Hussain Rana, one of the alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on terror charges, was on Thursday postponed till December 15.
A federal judge in Chicago said she needs more time to review the evidences.
US Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan adjourned the matter after one and a half hour bail hearing during which Rana’s lawyer Patrick Blegen produced three character witnesses, including his brother-in-law.
The witnesses described Rana as a “peaceful, honest, trustworthy and non-violent person who cannot talk about violence as he is a very peaceful person”.
Judge Nolan, while adjourning the matter till December 15, said she would need a “week's time” to read the statement, including a five hour video of the Rana’s statement gave to the FBI after his arrest in October.
“I would like to do a good job on it... as I am the only judge that Rana has,” she said.
She also said she needed time to study two al-Qaeda videos that were recovered from Rana’s house and go through his emails.
Rana, 48, remained silent during the hearing.
During the hearing, one of the witnesses Mohammad Arshad Mirza, said he knew Rana since they were members of ‘Iqbal society’.
This society exhorts Muslim to be educated to reach their goals through non-violent, peaceful and constitutional means.
Another witness Raja Muhammed Yaqoob said about 20 people including members of Rana's family met last Sunday to understand Rana’s case and discuss how we can help him.
“The consensus among everyone was that Rana is a trustworthy, honest and decent person,” he said.
Rana's brother-in-law Athar Akhtar deposed “he was a well-educated person and has never expressed any opinion in favour of violence. The whole family is well educated”. The witnesses said they did not have any conversation regarding Illyas Kashmiri with Rana.
Prosecutor Assistant US Attorney Dan Collins said the witnesses don’t know real Rana, who maintained his relationship with David Coleman Headley, another terror suspect arrested by FBI, and talked about ‘targets’. He also said Rana had arranged for Headley's travel to Denmark and other countries.
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“He spent a significant amount of time with (Headley) a lot more time than the three witnesses who were put here today,” Collins said, adding they just don't know this guy the way the evidence reveals him to be.
“The word 'target' is that man's word, it came out of his mouth,” he said referring to a recorded phone call.
Referring to the mention of National Defence College in the complaint against Rana, Blegen said his client assumed Headley “was talking about National Defence College in Pakistan and not National Defence College in India”.
Blegen said there is no evidence that the National Defence College being referred to in the complaint is the one in India.
On al-Qaeda DVDs found at Rana's house, Blegen said while “Headley gave these videos to Rana but he has not shown interest in them. Headley was giving things to Rana which he has not shown interest in. It is clear that Rana does not agree with things Headley gives him.”
“The government reads terrorism into all his (Rana's) terms and most of his terms refer to business,” Blegen said on the statements Rana made either on recorded phone calls or to investigators.
The prosecution mentioned that in five-hour statement that Rana gave to FBI agents, he has said he was thinking of expanding his meat business by opening a goat farm in Denmark.
He is also understood to have told agents that Headley admitted he received training from terrorist organisation LeT.
Talking to reporters after the hearing, Blegen said he feels the complaint against his client was “not as strong as the prosecution is making it out to be”.
On the decision regarding the bond hearing being postponed, Blegen said it did not disturb him as “I know that Judge Nolan is going to take everything into account and is taking her time because it is a very complicated and serious case.
“Obviously I would prefer to have him out and he has been in custody for a long time but we are going to be as patient as we can be”.
Blegen said he was hopeful that Rana, a Pakistan-born US-based Canadian citizen, would be released on December 15.
“I think he should be released and I know that Judge Nolan will give it a great deal of thought. It sounded to me as though Judge Nolan was indicating that she would make her ruling on that day," he added.
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