Pakistan Today

US court upholds Aafia Siddiqui’s sentence

A federal US appellate court on Monday upheld the conviction of Pakistani-American neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was accused of trying to kill US troops and FBI agents in Afghanistan four years ago. The second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a lower court judge had not erred in allowing Dr Siddiqui, 40, to testify in her own defence at trial two years ago and in allowing certain evidence against her. The Pakistani neuroscientist was sentenced to 86 years in prison after she was convicted of grabbing a US soldier’s M-4 assault rifle and trying to shoot a group of FBI agents and soldiers at an Afghan police compound in July 2008, a charge she consistently denied during the trial. At trial, she testified that she was simply trying to escape the room and was shot by someone who saw her. Siddiqui, whose conviction was widely criticised in Pakistan and by some human rights activists, was sentenced by US District Judge Richard Berman in September 2010. She was convicted by a New York federal jury of attempted murder, armed assault and other charges. The Pakistani neuroscientist is now spending time in prison in Carswell, Texas.

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