Thousands of Pakistanis have staged rallies against the conviction of a Pakistani scientist found guilty of trying to kill American servicemen in Afghanistan.
Protests were held on Thursday in several cities in Pakistan, where many believe that Aafia Siddiqui is innocent.
Latest Updates: Aafia Siddiqui RSS
-
abunoor
-
abunoor
The 37-year-old MIT-trained neuroscientist faces up to 60 years in prison for attempted murder and armed assault.
-
abunoor
A good piece by Joanne Mariner at FindLaw about the real questions that hang over the Aafia Siddiqui trial and which Ms. Siddiqui attempted on several occasions to bring into the trial although formally all the attorneys involved seemed to try to keep them out.
-
abunoor
Jurors completed a full day of deliberations in the Aafia Siddiqui case today without reaching a verdict. Deliberations will continue tomorrow morning.
-
abunoor
Aafia Siddiqui’s lawyers have “classic gotcha” moment in Closing Arguments:
Lawyers for accused “terror mom” Aafia Siddiqui pulled a classic “gotcha” during closing arguments today, producing video evidence that two purported bullet holes were present in a police station wall a day before she allegedly shot at Americans there.
“The government says you can’t press ‘pause’ in this case, but you can, because we have the video and we pressed ‘pause,’” lawyer Linda Moreno said as jurors looked at a still frame from a televised news conference after Siddiqui’s July 2008 arrest.
Two small holes that prosecution witnesses earlier said could have been gunshot damage from an assault rifle that Siddiqui allegedly fired were clearly visible in the background.
Moreno said the “non-existence of physical evidence” proved that Siddiqui never shot the weapon — which a Special Forces warrant officer set down on the floor — and that instead “she startled the soldier in front of her and got shot” after peeking around a curtain in the back.
-
abunoor
Mauri Saalakhan’s eyewitness account of the testimony of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui at her trial is at MuslimMatters.
-
johnpi
Until now, the government has been claiming that it found a Siddiqui’s finger prints on a rifle, but an FBI agent has now testified that the prints were taken from some documents.
My guess is that the pre-trial publicity about the prints coming from the rifle were useful in tainting the jury pool with prejudice…
-
johnpi
Aafia Siddiqui is quite clearly deeply disturbed or has gone insane.
Get ready for mental illness theater, which some elements of the media are just going to eat up.
Aafia Siddiqui, the MIT-trained scientist accused of shooting at FBI agents and having ties to Al-Qaeda, began the jury selection for her trial by saying that she did not want any Jews on the panel.
“Lady Al Qaeda,” as some media outlets are referring to her, announced that she was “boycotting” the trial and that jurors should be “subject to genetic testing” to see if they are of “Zionist or Israeli background.”
Siddiqui went on, saying, “I have a feeling everyone here is them… They should be excluded if you want to be fair.”
Remember, Siddiqui received her PhD from Brandeis Univeristy, a private nonsectarian university founded by prominent American Jews when anti-Semitism was still keeping many out of US higher education. The campus has always had a strong Jewish presence, and there’s no way she could have received her degree there if she had been dysfunctionally anti-Semitic. Her mind seems to be so far degenerated today that I doubt the person in that courtroom could manage a trip to the grocery store.
Here’s what judge Richard Berman said about her when he declared her competent to stand trial.
“This is an instance where a defendant may have some mental health issues but may nevertheless be competent to stand trial.”
Prick.
-
johnpi
The dubious case against Aafia Siddiqui is proceeding to trial.
The wire story linked is appearing in news outlets in Muslim countries that have an independent press, and I think it is not unreasonable to say that this story has garnered some interest and is being watched in the Muslim world.
-
johnpi
Aafia Siddiqui appeared in court today and made her first public statements since she was brought here from Afghanistan 11 months ago.
This story is from AP, (here’s another from ABC News) and we have no idea what got quoted and what remained unpublished, but here’s what we get from the article:
* “I want to make peace with the United States of America,” Siddiqui said to the backs of those at the prosecution table. “I’m not an enemy. I never was.”
* A defense attorney has disputed the U.S. government’s account of what happened in Afghanistan, and a not guilty plea has been entered for Siddiqui. In court Monday, she said: “I did not shoot anybody. I didn’t fire any bullets.”
* When Johnson testified that Siddiqui had said the judge is a pawn of a Zionist conspiracy and only wants to kill her, Siddiqui turned toward spectators and nodded her head enthusiastically in apparent agreement.
* Before she left court, Siddiqui insisted she’s not paranoid or psychotic and described her fears that her statements Monday might be her last.
“It’s probably the last opportunity I’m going to get,” she said, noting the possibility she will be subjected to forced medication. “I’ve seen people on the drugs. They can’t talk.”
And then there’s this:
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said he will rule later if she’s competent to stand trial in October. Psychologists say she’s had delusions that include seeing her three children in her cell and being visited by flying infants and dark angels.
-
johnpi
Yet another Muslim in the US has been brought up on unrelated charges after having refused to become an FBI informant – this time in Boston (Here’s another instance I blogged about recently from the LA area). The accused’s name is Tariq Mehanna, who was an active community member in the Boston area and points immediately west (Worcester, Lowell, etc). From the Boston Globe: “He created a blog called Iskandrani, a name tied to his Egyptian ancestry, and was considered a leader to teenagers at the Worcester Islamic Center. He went under the name Abu Sabaya, which he translated as “Father of Children.”"
Also, his blog postings have been cited in the media as damning. Here’s a link to his blog, and a post about Aafia Siddiqui, his writings about which were cited in the Globe article. He has also claimed Abdullah Azzam and Sayyid Qutb are inspirational figures to him, according to the Globe. I’m disgusted with the Globe for referring to the Siddiqui case, since you can find US Muslims all over the web from across the political spectrum who are troubled by what happened to her (Muslim Matters, Muslimah Media Watch, my blog, Umar, etc, etc.) I admit I have not read his post about Sr. Aafia, so I dont know if there is anything there that is substantially unusual relative to what anybody else is saying.
The Globe reporter buried the key information about the informant offer deep in the story:
