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Pakistani faces US shooting trial Pakistani suspect berates US jury
(1 day later)
A Pakistani woman, alleged by US authorities to have links to al-Qaeda, is set to stand trial in New York on attempted murder charges. A Pakistani woman alleged to have shot at US soldiers yelled at jurors on the first day of her trial that she had been held in a secret prison.
Aafia Siddiqui, 37, is charged with shooting at FBI agents while being detained in Afghanistan in 2008. Neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, 37, had to be escorted out of a courtroom in New York after disrupting a witness giving testimony.
Prosecutors say Ms Siddiqui picked up a rifle while she was waiting to be questioned in a police compound in Ghazni and fired towards US agents. She is being tried on attempted murder charges - she says she is innocent.
Ms Siddiqui, who was shot during the incident, insists she is innocent. She is alleged to have used a rifle to fire at US agents while waiting to be questioned in Afghanistan.
Her lawyers dispute the prosecution's version of events and say she never touched a gun. Ms Siddiqui was shot during that incident.
In 2004 the US named her one of its most-wanted al-Qaeda fugitives, but she has never been charged for any specific terror plots. 'Mass-casualty attacks'
Courtroom outburst Assistant attorney Jenna Dabbs told jurors that Ms Siddiqui was taken into custody by Afghan police in July 2008 because she was carrying containers of unidentified chemicals and notes referring to "mass-casualty attacks" in New York such as the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and the Brooklyn Bridge.
She has refused to work with her defence lawyers and argued that she would not get a fair trial if there were Jewish people on the jury. Ms Siddiqui is charged only with the shooting incident.
Last week, she was removed from the courtroom by the judge after shouting out: "I had nothing to do with 9/11". She wore a white veil and sat with her head in her arms throughout most of the proceedings in the federal court.
In July 2009, a judge ruled that Ms Siddiqui was mentally fit to stand trial. She interrupted evidence against her to allege that she was held in a "secret prison... where children were tortured".
Her lawyers had said that she had suffered from hallucinations during her period in pre-trial detention. There was "no list of targets against New York", she added. "I was never planning to bomb it."
Supporters say that she vanished between 2003 and 2008 and that she was held in US-linked detention centres during that time. US Army Capt Robert Snyder told the jury on Tuesday that an unnamed soldier created a deadly risk by not securing his weapon at an Afghan police outpost on 18 July 2008.
In 2008, she was initially detained in Afghanistan after being discovered with notes referring to what authorities say was a "mass casualty attack". I was absolutely certain there was nothing I could do to get out of her line of fire US Army Capt Robert Snyder
Science graduate He described seeing the soldier put down the rifle and turn away to shake hands with police before gunfire started.
The youngest of three children of a British-trained doctor, Ms Siddiqui went to school in Karachi. Prosecutors allege that while being detained at that outpost, Ms Siddiqui grabbed the weapon and fired it.
She continued her education in the US, graduating with a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she became heavily involved in on-campus Islamic activities. Capt Snyder testified that at the time of the shooting he looked towards a curtain and saw a woman kneeling on a bed and pointing the rifle.
Although her family denies this, Ms Siddiqui is said to have married a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the self-confessed orchestrators of the 2001 attacks on the US. "I could see the inner portion of the barrel, which indicated to me it was pointing straight at my head," he said. "I was absolutely certain there was nothing I could do to get out of her line of fire."
Seconds later he saw an interpreter for the army struggling to subdue Ms Siddiqui.
She has declined to work with her defence lawyers and argued that she would not get a fair trial if there were Jewish people on the jury.