Aafia Siddiqui was convicted Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Manhattan of attempting to kill U.S. Army and FBI officers in July of 2008. It is alleged when she was found, she was carrying a list of New York landmarks and instructions for building explosive devices, but there were no charges related to those allegations.
Ms. Siddiqui vanished from Pakistan 2003, along with her three children. She was then arrested in 2008 by Afghan police in Ghazni, Afghanistan. It is still not clear where she was in the five years between her disappearance and arrest. Many in Pakistan suspect that Siddique spent that time in U.S. custody in Baghram AFB, but Pakistani and U.S. officials deny that she was in custody.
A UK–based human right group Cageprisoners said that there were numerous flaws in Siddiqui’s trial, such as exclusion of evidence pertaining to Siddiqui’s alleged detention prior to 2008. The trial was marked by many delays, including two hearings to determine Siddiqui’s competency to stand trial, two jurors dismissed after they were threatened in the courtroom, and numerous outbursts by the accused.
Read more at Al Jazeera.
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