Chicago terrorist charged in India can stay in US during extradition appeal, judge rules

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A convicted terrorist from Chicago has won a temporary court fight.

A judge ruled Tahawwur Rana may stay in the U.S. during appeal of his extradition to India where he would face certain conviction and the death penalty for his role in a Mumbai massacre.

Rana has already been convicted in Chicago of ties to the Pakistani terror group that was responsible for the several day siege in Mumbai, India on November 2008. The attack killed 175 people, including six Americans.

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Rana owned and operated a Rogers Park travel agency that authorities said was perfect cover for a jihadist plot with his friend David Headley to help terrorists in their native Pakistan attack arch-enemy India.

After his conviction in Chicago for ties to the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and serving a 15 year sentence, a US judge ruled Rana must be extradited to India to stand trial there.

Rana has appealed, claiming it would essentially be a death sentence.

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As Rana waits in a cell at the federal lock-up in Los Angeles, prosecutors want him sent overseas now even without a decision on his appeal.

Late Friday afternoon, in a stay of extradition, a judge in Los Angeles ruled that, "Rana has shown that he is likely to suffer significant irreparable harm absent a stay."

"It means that if this court doesn't stop the extradition from going forward, then he'll be extradited, and will have no chance of winning on the arguments that he's making, which are that he can't be extradited under the law," explained ABC7 Chief Legal Analyst Gil Soffer, "I think this order does give Rana a hope that he may be able to stay in the US. The court says it hasn't concluded that he's going to win, but the court is issuing a stay on the theory that he might win at least on appeal."

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Soffer, a former federal prosecutor, said he is a little surprised by the ruling.

"Typically, an extradition is not the most complicated proceeding and typically, at the request of a state of a country with which we have an extradition treaty, we will extradite, but here the court is seeing a real question on the law on whether he can be extradited or not," he said.

The I-Team has not yet received a reply from Rana's attorneys but what this ruling means is that lawyers for the convicted Chicago terrorist will now have time to pursue their appeal.

One essential question is whether America's treaty with India allows for him to be extradited and tried there for an offense in which he also faced prosecution here, or whether the charges are substantially different.