The criminal trial of Aafia Siddiqui ended when Siddiqui was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder. The AP reports that she was also "convicted of armed assault, using and carrying a firearm and assault of U.S. officers and employees." When she is sentenced in May, she could face a maximum of life in prison.
The MIT-educated neuroscientist was detained by U.S. soldiers in 2008 after she was found with a list of New York landmarks and directions on how to make a bomb. She claimed that the bag in which the items were found did not belong to her. In an effort to escape, she was accused of picked up a gun and shooting at F.B.I. agents and U.S. soldiers. She was injured when the soldiers returned fire.
The Dow Jones Newswires reports that in her testimony, she explained that she never picked up a gun and that she was only trying to escape the room she was being held in out of fear. She thought that she was "going to be transferred to a 'secret' prison by the Americans and was trying to slip out of the room when she was shot." In her own words she said, "I walked toward the curtain. I was shot and I was shot again. I fainted."
She called the idea that she would shoot at the soldiers "the biggest joke" because she felt that it would be unlikely that "American soldiers would be irresponsible to leave a gun around."
Until the end of her trial, she alleged that she was tortured in a secret prison prior to her arrest.
Related Resources:
- Stages of a Criminal Case: Criminal Trials (FindLaw)
- Aafia Siddiqui Boycotts Trial Over Jury Pool (FindLaw's New York Criminal Law Blog)
- New York Criminal Defense Lawyers (FindLaw)
