Rana trial judge orders release of some sealed documents on

From Lalit K Jha
Chicago, May 25 (PTI) The District court conducting
the Mumbai attack trial in the US Wednesday ordered that some
of the over dozen sealed documents presented in the court as
key evidences be made public.
Some of the documents are believed to have key
evidence of links between Pakistan's powerful intelligence
agency ISI and LeT and other terrorist outfits blamed for the
November 2008 Mumbai carnage in which 166 persons were killed.
The order by U S District Court Judge Harry
Leinenweber came on a plea by The Chicago Tribune newspaper
which sought public access to over a dozen sealed documents in
the Tahawwur Rana case Details of which of the documents
would be released was not immediately available.
The news daily had argued that keeping the documents
under secrecy undermines the benefits of public scrutiny.
Invoking the First Amendment and common law rights,
the paper asked the court to give it access to at least the
redacted versions of the documents that have been presented
under seals in the court and are believed to have key evidence
of links between ISI and LeT and other terrorist outfits.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution is part of
the Bill of Rights and covers the freedom of speech and
freedom of the press.
The documents have not been made available to anyone.
In fact, some of these documents are not even available to
Rana's attorneys. Rana is the co-accused in the Mumbai attack
case and his trial is likely to throw light on ISI's links to
the incident.