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Guilty verdicts in Mumbai attack trial

An Indian man dives into the sea in front of Taj Mahal hotel where Mumbai Terrorist attack happened on 26th November, 2008 and killed close to 200 people, near Gate of Indian in Mumbai, India on March 15, 2009. (UPI Photo/Mohammad Kheirkhah)
An Indian man dives into the sea in front of Taj Mahal hotel where Mumbai Terrorist attack happened on 26th November, 2008 and killed close to 200 people, near Gate of Indian in Mumbai, India on March 15, 2009. (UPI Photo/Mohammad Kheirkhah) | License Photo

CHICAGO, June 9 (UPI) -- A federal jury Thursday convicted a Chicago businessman for his role in the deadly November 2008 attack in Mumbai and a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper.

The jury convicted Tahawwur Rana on one count of conspiracy to provide material support in the newspaper bomb plot -- which was never carried out -- and one count of providing material support to the terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, which carried out the attack that left 170 people dead in Mumbai.

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The jury found Rana not guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai terrorist attack.

WLS-TV, Chicago, reported Rana showed no reaction when the verdicts were read.

Rana, 50, a Canadian citizen, was convicted following an eight-day trial and two days of deliberation.

Rana was accused of helping childhood friend David Coleman Headley scout locations for the attack and the Danish newspaper plot. Headley, 50, who worked with Pakistani intelligence and LeT, testified Rana allowed him to use his immigration business as cover for travel in planning the attacks.

"The message should be clear to all those who help terrorists -- we will bring to justice all those who seek to facilitate violence," Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said.

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Rana is the second defendant -- among eight co-defendants indicted in the case since 2009 -- to have been convicted. Headley pleaded guilty in March 2010 to all 12 counts against him, including aiding and abetting the murders of the six American victims in Mumbai.

Headley, who has cooperated with prosecutors since his October 2009 arrest, faces the possibility of a life prison sentence.

The other six people charged in the case are thought to be in Pakistan, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

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