A US-educated Pakistani woman who caught the attention of human rights groups after she disappeared for five years was found guilty on Wednesday of trying to kill US servicemen in Afghanistan.
Aafia Siddiqui, 37, a neuroscientist trained at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was found guilty on all charges by a jury in federal court. She faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced on May 6.
A family lawyer immediately announced an appeal, citing “prejudice and bias.”
Siddiqui was accused of grabbing a rifle at an Afghan police station where she was being interrogated in July 2008 and trying to gun down a group of US servicemen.
Although she was not charged with terrorism, prosecutors described her as a would-be terrorist who had also plotted to bomb New York.
Her lawyers tried to prove that Siddiqui, who reported disturbing hallucinations involving her missing children, was insane. However, a judge ruled her fit to stand trial.
Tina Monshipour, an attorney for Siddiqui’s family, said afterwards: “This verdict is being subject to an appeal.”
“There were a lot of unfair decisions,” Monshipour said. “She was portrayed as a terrorist even if there were no terrorism charges in this trial. This is one of those cases in which we see prejudice and bias invade the courtroom.”
Pakistan also immediately voiced criticism.
“We are dismayed over the unexpected verdict of the jury in Doctor Aafia Siddiqui’s case,” Pakistan’s embassy in Washington said in a statement. “The government will do all that is needed to provide justice to her as a Pakistani citizen.”
Siddiqui, wearing a white veil, repeatedly disrupted her trial with outbursts at the jury, witnesses and her own lawyers, including claims that she was a victim of Israel.
After being found guilty, she responded in similar fashion, saying: “This is a verdict from Israel, not America. The anger should be directed where it belongs.”
The trial has drawn widespread attention because it is one of a string of high-profile terrorism cases currently being handled by US prosecutors.
Several other suspects in alleged bomb plots are working their way through the system, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is also due to be tried — possibly in New York.
A frail-looking woman who excelled in her US studies, Siddiqui featured on a 2004 US list of people suspected of al-Qaeda links. She is also said to have married a relative of Mohammed, although this has been disputed.
Family and some human rights groups paint a different picture, claiming that Siddiqui was imprisoned by US forces after disappearing along with her three children in Pakistan in 2003 and that she is now mentally disturbed.
All anyone agrees on is that Siddiqui was taken to an Afghan police station in the town of Ghazni in July 2008.
Prosecutors claimed that Siddiqui was arrested in possession of notes indicating plans to attack the Statue of Liberty and other New York landmarks.
Some in the US press dubbed her “Lady Qaeda.”
However, no terrorism charges were filed after she was brought to the US, making her trial an outwardly straightforward criminal case in which the jury had to decide whether she did or did not attempt to murder US officers.
Prosecutors allege she picked up a rifle in the police station and opened fire on US servicemen and FBI representatives who had come to try and take her into detention. She missed and in a struggle was herself shot by one of the US soldiers.
Defense lawyers argued there was no physical evidence, such as finger prints or gunpowder traces, to show Siddiqui even grabbed the rifle, let alone opened fire.
But the trial did not shed light on the mystery surrounding this petite, academically brilliant mother of three.
Human rights groups have long speculated that Siddiqui may have been secretly imprisoned and tortured at the US base in Bagram, Afghanistan, during the five years prior to the 2008 incident.
The US military has denied she was ever held at the base.
Siddiqui vanished in Pakistan at a time of intense efforts by US-backed local security forces to root out al-Qaeda. Relatives believe she was grabbed in one of these operations.
Siddiqui appeared to refer to the rumors during her trial, protesting during one of her outbursts: “If you were in a secret prison ... [where] your children were tortured.”
Two of Siddiqui’s children remain missing, one of them presumed dead. Her 13-year-old lives with the family in Karachi.
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