Chicago:
Lawyers of Mumbai terror attack suspect Tahawwur Rana have asked a federal judge to make prosecutors turn over e-mails written by co-accused David Coleman Headley so that they may question him about his many wives.
Lawyers for Rana, who Headley is expected to testify against, said Monday they had received a voluminous number of e-mails authored by Headley, including a portion that made reference to his past relationships.
In seeking more e-mails, lawyer Patrick Blegen said Rana's team sees relevance if they show Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Headley, who has confessed to his role in the attacks, keeping secrets and selectively disclosing things to his friends, including Rana.
"We want all of them so we can decide" their relevance, Blegen was quoted as saying by the Chicago Sun Times.
"Headley had several girlfriends, wives, etc. in the period," Charles Swift, another Rana attorney said.
But Assistant US Attorney Daniel Collins said the government has already turned over what's relevant.
While Headley, son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, has a wife and kids who live in Chicago, he was married to at least one other woman at the same time.
The New York Times reported in October that two of Headley's three wives had approached US authorities about a possible terror attack on Mumbai before it was carried out in November 2008, killing 166 people.
US-born Headley, who met Rana as a youth at a military school in Pakistan, has pleaded guilty in the case and has provided information to authorities.
Pakistani Canadian Rana, who is being held in a federal lockup pending his May trial, is accused of aiding Headley's efforts as he went on scouting missions to Mumbai as well as in a separate plot involving a Danish newspaper.