<p>The attorney representing the relatives of the two victims in the US Federal Court in the Eastern District of New York said that incarcerated Pakistani-American terror-plotter David Coleman Headley’s testimony during the trial of his accomplice and co-accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana in Chicago strengthened the case against the ISI.<br /><br />“India could file amicus curiae brief – friend of the court – explaining that it has an interest in seeing the ISI not considered immune (to legal process in US) and in seeing the ISI’s culpability established (in connection with the 26/11 attacks),” James P Kriendler of the New York based law firm Kriendler & Kriendler LLP told Deccan Herald.<br /><br />Though a section of the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs here are believed to be in favour of joining the legal process against ISI in the US, New Delhi has not yet made such a move, ostensibly because Ministry of External Affairs and Prime Minister’s Office are concerned over its implications on the just-revived peace-process with Islamabad.<br /><br />Holtzberg, a rabbi originally from Brooklyn in New York, and his pregnant wife, Rivka, were killed by the LeT terrorists at Chabad Lubavitch in Mumbai during the 26/11 attacks.<br />On November 19, 2010, Holtzbergs’ relatives, represented by Kriendler & Kreindler LLP, filed the civil against the planners and perpetrators of the terrorist attack and their supporters. Apart from the LeT, the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, its current chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha and his predecessor Nadeem Taj as well as Major Iqbal and Major Ali (both understood to be officials of the spy agency of Pakistan) are defendants in the case.<br /><br />The US court summoned Pasha and Taj. But the ISI moved the court seeking dismissal of the lawsuit claiming that the agency was a part of Pakistan government and hence it and its directors were immune from any legal action in the US.<br /><br />“We oppose saying that the ISI has been operating outside the control of the government (of Pakistan) and thus is not immune,” Kriendler said from New York.<br />The ISI lawyer Kevin Walsh recently told the court that any issue involving Pakistan should be dealt with by the US political institutions, not by the courts, which have no jurisdiction over government agencies in another country.<br /><br />“We are saying that the court is empowered to hear death and injury claims arising from a terror attack and because the US Government introduced evidence about the ISI’s role in the Rana trial (in Chicago). <br /><br />(So) the US government does not think this case is too political for the courts,” said Kriendler.<br /></p>
<p>The attorney representing the relatives of the two victims in the US Federal Court in the Eastern District of New York said that incarcerated Pakistani-American terror-plotter David Coleman Headley’s testimony during the trial of his accomplice and co-accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana in Chicago strengthened the case against the ISI.<br /><br />“India could file amicus curiae brief – friend of the court – explaining that it has an interest in seeing the ISI not considered immune (to legal process in US) and in seeing the ISI’s culpability established (in connection with the 26/11 attacks),” James P Kriendler of the New York based law firm Kriendler & Kriendler LLP told Deccan Herald.<br /><br />Though a section of the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs here are believed to be in favour of joining the legal process against ISI in the US, New Delhi has not yet made such a move, ostensibly because Ministry of External Affairs and Prime Minister’s Office are concerned over its implications on the just-revived peace-process with Islamabad.<br /><br />Holtzberg, a rabbi originally from Brooklyn in New York, and his pregnant wife, Rivka, were killed by the LeT terrorists at Chabad Lubavitch in Mumbai during the 26/11 attacks.<br />On November 19, 2010, Holtzbergs’ relatives, represented by Kriendler & Kreindler LLP, filed the civil against the planners and perpetrators of the terrorist attack and their supporters. Apart from the LeT, the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, its current chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha and his predecessor Nadeem Taj as well as Major Iqbal and Major Ali (both understood to be officials of the spy agency of Pakistan) are defendants in the case.<br /><br />The US court summoned Pasha and Taj. But the ISI moved the court seeking dismissal of the lawsuit claiming that the agency was a part of Pakistan government and hence it and its directors were immune from any legal action in the US.<br /><br />“We oppose saying that the ISI has been operating outside the control of the government (of Pakistan) and thus is not immune,” Kriendler said from New York.<br />The ISI lawyer Kevin Walsh recently told the court that any issue involving Pakistan should be dealt with by the US political institutions, not by the courts, which have no jurisdiction over government agencies in another country.<br /><br />“We are saying that the court is empowered to hear death and injury claims arising from a terror attack and because the US Government introduced evidence about the ISI’s role in the Rana trial (in Chicago). <br /><br />(So) the US government does not think this case is too political for the courts,” said Kriendler.<br /></p>
