Mumbai terror suspect Tahawwur Rana gets 14 years in jail

Chicago, Jan 18 (IANS) Pakistan-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana was Thursday sentenced to 14 years in jail followed by five years of supervised release for providing support to Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that staged the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Although Rana, a boyhood friend of LeT operative David Coleman Headley, was acquitted of supporting the Mumbai attacks, prosecutors had sought the maximum 30 year sentence for his role in the aborted plot to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Rana’s lawyers, seeking leniency for their client, downplayed his role in the Danish scheme, saying he was kept in the dark about much of the plot. They sought a lighter sentence of not more than a nine-year jail term, citing his poor health.

Headley, they said was a master manipulator who fooled Rana into supporting his terror activities.

IANS 2013-01-18 00:14:05