Aafia Siddiqui (born March 2, 1972) is an American-educated Pakistani criminal who was convicted after a jury trial in a U.S. federal court of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. In September 2010, she was sentenced by the U.S. judge to 86 years in prison.
A devout Muslim who had engaged in Islamic charity work and proselytizing in the U.S., Siddiqui moved back to Pakistan in 2002. She disappeared with her three young children in March 2003, shortly after the arrest of her second husband's uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief planner of the September 11 attacks It was reported that Khalid Mohammed mentioned Siddiqui's name while he was being interrogated.Siddiqui was added to the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list in 2003. In May 2004, the FBI named Siddiqui as one of its seven Most Wanted Terrorists. Her whereabouts remained unknown for more than five years, until she was arrested in July 2008 in Afghanistan.The Afghan police said she was carrying in her purse handwritten notes and a computer thumb drive containing recipes for conventional bombs and weapons of mass destruction, instructions on how to make machines to shoot down U.S. drones, descriptions of New York City landmarks with references to a mass casualty attack, and two pounds of sodium cyanide in a glass jar.
Siddiqui was shot and severely wounded at the police compound the following day when she grabbed the unattended rifle of one of her American interrogators and began shooting at them. She got medical attention for her wounds at Bagram Air Base and was flown to the U.S. to be charged in a New York City federal court with attempted murder, and armed assault on U.S. officers and employees.She denied the charges and said the interrogators had fired on her when she had attempted to flee.After receiving psychological evaluations and therapy, the judge declared her mentally fit to stand trial. Amnesty International monitored the trial for fairness.Siddiqui interrupted the trial proceedings with vocal outbursts and was ejected from the courtroom several times.The jury convicted her of all the charges in February 2010. The prosecution argued for "terrorism enhancement" of the charges that would require a life term; Siddiqui's lawyers requested a 12-year sentence, arguing that she was mentally ill. The charges against her stemmed solely from the shooting, and Siddiqui was not charged with, or prosecuted for, any terrorism-related offenses.
Many of Siddiqui's supporters, including international human rights organizations, have claimed that Siddiqui was not an extremist and that she and her young children were illegally detained, interrogated and tortured by Pakistani intelligence or U.S. authorities or both during her five-year disappearance. The U.S. and Pakistan governments have denied all such claims.
