New York, Sept. 24: A US judge has imposed an effective life term of 86 years on a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted of shooting at FBI agents and soldiers after her arrest in Afghanistan.
Aafia Siddiqui, 38, was found guilty by a federal court jury in February on charges that she grabbed a US warrant officer’s rifle and fired at her American interrogators as the tiny, frail woman was wrestled to the ground.
Her conviction was widely criticised in Pakistan, where Siddiqui is believed to have been innocent and mistreated while being jailed in Afghanistan and later in the United States.
But Siddiqui, who spoke at length three times during the 3.5-hour hearing in New York, repeatedly told supporters in the gallery not to fight in her name and that she was being well treated.
“I don’t want any violence in my name, please,” she said. “Thanks to God, I am well in prison. They are not torturing me.” Siddiqui, who has a doctorate from Brandeis University in Massachussets, wore a beige tunic and white headscarf covering her mouth and forehead.