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 Islamic militants in Syria, Algeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan have
made Aafia Siddiqui's release a condition for freeing certain
foreign hostages. Islamic State, for example, proposed swapping
American journalist James Foley for her, but he was executed after
their demands, which also included an end to U.S. airstrikes in
Iraq, were not met.
A 42-year-old mother of three with degrees from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, Siddiqui is serving
an 86-year sentence in a prison medical center in Texas. A jury in
2010 convicted her of attempting to shoot and kill a group of FBI
agents, U.S. soldiers and interpreters who were about to interrogate
her for alleged links to al Qaeda.
Siddiqui, who during her trial interrupted proceedings repeatedly
and at times was removed from the courtroom, wrote U.S. District
Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan on July 2 seeking to end her most
recent appeal.
"I refuse to participate in this system of total injustice that has
punished and tortured me repeatedly, and continues to do so, without
my having committed a crime," she wrote.
Siddiqui said she wanted to be sent home to Pakistan through
diplomacy, not through the legal system. But her lawyer Robert Boyle
told the judge he was concerned she did not fully understand that as
a consequence of her request she might not have another opportunity
to challenge her conviction.
U.S. prosecutors were scheduled to respond to Siddiqui's letter with
their own letter by late on Wednesday.
Siddiqui was likely unaware of the attempt by Islamic State to free
her in a prisoner swap for Foley, Boyle told Reuters. Federal
Medical Center Carswell severely restricts her contact with the
outside world, he said.
Siddiqui already lost one appeal. In 2012, an appeals court rejected
arguments that her trial was unfair and upheld her conviction.
Her latest appeal, filed in May, argues that Siddiqui received an
unfair trial because she was not allowed to fire defense lawyers who
were paid by the Pakistan government, and that U.S. prosecutors
failed to turn over important evidence.
WIDESPREAD KIDNAPPINGS
In 2003, Siddiqui was wanted by the FBI for questioning for possible
ties to al Qaeda and was detained by Pakistani authorities,
according to U.S. media reports at the time.
U.S. officials alleged that when the Afghan police captured Siddiqui
in July 2008, she was carrying two pounds (900 grams) of sodium
cyanide, which releases a highly toxic gas, notes that referred to a
mass casualty attack, and a list of U.S. landmarks.
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Siddiqui was never charged with links to terrorism. The FBI agents,
U.S. soldiers and interpreters said that as they were about to
interrogate her at an Afghan police compound in Ghazni, Afghanistan,
she grabbed a rifle and began shooting at them. None of them were
wounded, but Siddiqui was shot in the abdomen when they returned
fire. Siddiqui's family says she was raped and tortured at the
U.S. military's Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have
said they found no evidence of that, but Islamist militant groups
say her case is an example of the worst excesses of the U.S. war on
terror.
At her trial, Siddiqui's lawyer urged an acquittal because there was
no evidence the rifle had been fired. No bullets, shell casings or
bullet debris were recovered and no bullet holes were detected, the
lawyer said.
Prosecutors cited testimony from witnesses and said the witnesses
had no motive to lie.
Freeing Siddiqui or winning her repatriation to Pakistan has at a
times been a popular cause in her homeland, where her trial was seen
as unfair. In 2011, Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for
the kidnapping of a Swiss couple and said they could be freed if
Siddiqui were released.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban asked for her release as part of a deal
to free U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. In May, Bergdahl was
released in a prisoner swap that freed five Taliban leaders held at
the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Calls for Siddiqui's release were made by al Qaeda-linked kidnappers
in Algeria in January 2013. A few months later, two Czech women who
had been kidnapped in Pakistan appeared in a video demanding the
scientist's freedom in return for their release. It was not clear
who was holding them.
(Additional reporting by Alistair Bell; Editing by Noeleen Walder
and Ross Colvin)
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