Rana lawyers give brief defence;trial to see closing arguments

Chicago, Jun 7: The defence for Tahawwur Rana, co-accused with David Headly in the 26/11 attacks, rested its case here after calling two witnesses but the Pakistani Canadian himself did not testify.

At the hearing of the terror trial, the defence said employees at Rana's Immigration offices in New York or Toronto did not remember working with Headley. The employees -- Rehana and Kashif Khan -- among others, take calls at the offices.

The defense called in a computer forensic expert and an immigration attorney but Rana waived his right to testify. Closing arguments by the prosecution and defense are scheduled for Tuesday.

Computer forensic expert Yaniv Schiff Moshe said he researched Rana's computers from July 1, 2009 to October 15, 2009 and found that no search was conducted on them except on one computer for Jyllands Posten cultural editor Fleming Rose or Kurt Westergaard the cartoonist who drew the controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

This one computer was used by Headley himself to search the Danish newspaper office and its targets.

The government and prosecution argued on computer technicalities like "Unallocated Space" in which technicians can check which websites were visited on a computer.

Schiff also said he saw in a link of a Yahoo group - an Abdalian forum posting and a Mumbai terror attacks posting on Rana's computer. But these links never opened.

After the presentation of witnesses, Judge Harry D Leinenweber asked Rana if he had consulted his lawyers and wanted to testify but a frail-looking Rana, dressed in a brown suit, said that he did not want to testify.

PTI