Jury selection began on Monday in a Chicago trial that will open a window onto two Pakistani terror groups and the plotters of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The indictment does not mention the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) but it does name a Major Iqbal and describes him as “a resident of Pakistan who participated in planning and funding attacks carried out by Lashkar.”
Court proceedings on Monday were brief and opening statements are not expected until May 23.
“Potential jurors are completing a questionnaire and they’ll return tomorrow for in-court jury selection,” said Randall Samborn, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in northern Illinois.
Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 50, is charged with providing material support to the attackers by acting as a messenger and providing a cover for a key figure.
David Coleman Headley, who was arrested in 2009 and has admitted to scouting sites for the Mumbai siege, will be a star witness at Rana’s trial.
Jurors are also expected to hear a series of conversations between the two men that were secretly recorded by America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Rana – who holds Canadian citizenship – insisted after his 2009 arrest that he is a pacifist who was “duped” into letting his old friend use his immigration services company as a cover.
But in pre-trial motions, his lawyers proposed defending Rana’s actions by arguing that he believed Headley was working on behalf of the ISI, not terrorists.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2011.
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