Chicago: Terror suspects David Coleman
Headley and Tahawwur Rana, indicted on charges of being
involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will be arraigned in a
court here next week.
The arraignment of Rana and Headley was initially
scheduled for today but have now been rescheduled. While
Pakistani-Canadian citizen Rana will be arraigned on January
25, Pakistani-American Headley's arraignment has been set for
January 27 before US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in US
District Court, Northern District of Illinois, US Attorney?s
Office spokesman Randall Samborn said.
Further, a status hearing that was scheduled for today
in Rana's appeal of detention has also been cancelled and not
yet been rescheduled, Samborn said.
Chicagoans Headley and Rana were indicted on January
14 by a federal grand jury on charges of being involved in the
Mumbai attacks and planning a terror strike against a Danish
newspaper in Copenhagen.
The 12-count superseding indictment contains the
identical charges that were filed against Headley on December
7 while adding Rana as a defendant in three of the counts
charging material support of the terrorism plots in Denmark
and India, as well as in support of terrorist organisation
Lashkar-e-Toiba.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had
sued the federal government challenging the visa ban on these
two Muslim professors, termed it as a major victory.
"The orders ending the exclusion of Adam Habib and
Tariq Ramadan are long overdue and tremendously important,"
said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security
Project.
"For several years, the United States government was
more interested in stigmatising and silencing its foreign
critics than engaging them.
The decision to end the exclusion of Professors Habib
and Ramadan is a welcome sign that the Obama administration is
committed to facilitating, rather than obstructing, the
exchange of ideas across international borders," Jaffer said.
Professor Adam Habib is a respected political
analyst and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research, Innovation and
Advancement at the University of Johannesburg, as well as a
Muslim who has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and some
US terrorism-related policies.
"My family and I are thrilled by Secretary Clinton's
decision, and we are thankful to the many organisations that
put pressure on the Obama administration to stop excluding
people from the United States on the basis of their political
views," said Habib.
"This is not only a personal victory but also a
victory for democracy around the world, and we hope this
signals a move by the administration to begin restoring the
liberties and freedoms that have been so badly eroded in
recent times," he said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 08:58