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NY Jury Finds Pakistani Scientist Guilty of Trying to Kill Americans

   Carolyn Weaver | New York 03 February 2010

   After  a  two-week  trial, a federal jury in Manhattan, New Yoerk City
   has  convicted  Pakistani  neuroscientist  Aafia Siddiqui of trying to
   kill  American  government  personnel  while  she  was  in  custody in
   Afghanistan.
   Siddiqui,  37,  was  found  guilty  of  attempted murder and six other
   charges  stemming  from the shooting at a police station in the Afghan
   town of Ghazni in 2008.
   The jury of eight women and four men did not find Siddiqui's acts were
   premeditated.  Defense lawyers say that means her sentence will likely
   be a maximum of 30 or 40 years rather than life in prison.
   After  the  verdict  was  read, Siddiqui, dressed in white silk hijab,
   protested  from  her  seat  at  the  defense table. "This is a verdict
   coming from Israel, not America,"  she said. "Anger should be directed
   where it belongs. I have testimony and I have proof."
   Defense  attorney  Elaine  Sharp  said  that Siddiqui wanted to send a
   message  to  her  defenders  in  Pakistan not to respond to the guilty
   verdict  with  violence.  "She expressed to me adamantly that she does
   not  want  any violence, any violent protest, or any violent reprisal.
   That is not what she's about," she said.
   Siddiqui, who trained as a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of
   Technology, had interrupted her two-week trial with several outbursts,
   accusing the judge of lying, and addressing remarks to witnesses.

   Her  lawyers tried to prevent her from testifying, saying that she was
   mentally  ill  after  being  held  in  solitary  confinement since her
   arrival  in  the  U.S.  last  summer.   But  the  judge  permitted her
   testimony,  which  included  her denials that she ever fired a shot or
   was capable of violence.
   U.S. prosecutors presented six eyewitnesses, both American and Afghan,
   to  the  shooting  in  a  small  room at the police station in Ghazni.
   Siddiqui  had  been  arrested  the day before.  U.S. investigators had
   arrived  to  question  her  about  items  reportedly found in her bag,
   including notes on bomb-making and a list of New York landmarks.
   The  witnesses  testified  that Siddiqui, who was sequestered behind a
   curtain,  grabbed  a  rifle that a U.S. soldier had left on the floor,
   and opened fire.
   A  U.S.  soldier  fired  back with a pistol, wounding Siddiqi.  No one
   else  was  injured,  and the government presented no forensic evidence
   that  the  rifle  had  been fired.  Siddiqui claimed that she was shot
   while  trying  to escape.  She also alleged she had been tortured in a
   secret prison in the years before her arrest.
   Defense attorneys said they will likely appeal the conviction. Siddiqi
   is scheduled to be sentenced in the Manhattan court on May 6.

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