Pakistan will take all steps to secure the release and return home of a Pakistani woman convicted in a US court for shooting at her US interrogators in Afghanistan, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
Aafia Siddiqui, 37, was convicted in a New York court on Wednesday for grabbing a US officer’s rifle while she was being questioned in 2008 in Afghanistan and firing at FBI agents and military personnel as she was wrestled to the ground.
The jury gave a unanimous verdict on seven counts, including attempted murder and assault. Though guilty on two attempted murder counts, the jury said the crime was not premeditated.
PHOTO: AFP
Siddiqui is a US-trained neuroscientist who spent years living in the US, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The conviction was criticized in Pakistan, where Siddiqui is widely believed to have been innocent and mistreated in detention. Small protests were held in different parts of the country where anti-US feeling is already running high.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a regular briefing the government would do its best to secure Siddiqui’s release.
“The ultimate objective is to get her back to Pakistan and we would do everything possible and we’ll apply all possible tools in this regard,” Basit said.
President Asif Ali Zardari said he was concerned about the outcome of the trial.
“The president was concerned about the verdict and expressed the hope that justice will ultimately be done as the case passes through subsequent stages in the US judicial system,” the president’s spokesman said in a statement.
None of the US agents or personnel was injured in the July 2008 incident but Siddiqui, who the US government has accused of links with al Qaeda, was shot.
About 2,000 Islamists protesting against Siddiqui’s conviction chanted slogans against the US and support for Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in the southwestern city of Quetta.
Protests were also held in the capital, Islamabad, and the eastern city of Multan.
Siddiqui was arrested by Afghan police, who said she was carrying containers of chemicals and notes referring to mass-casualty attacks and New York landmarks. She was not charged in connection with those materials and the charges she was convicted of do not mention terrorism.
The case centered on the incident that occurred the day after she was arrested in the Afghan police compound, where US soldiers and FBI agents sought to question her.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS